


Platinum Angel

by Albireo



Category: Assassin's Creed, Chobits
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-03-10 08:30:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 42
Words: 87,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3283763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Albireo/pseuds/Albireo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A persocom gets turned into a killing machine against her will, and now struggles to come to terms with what she has become. Slight crossover with Assassin's Creed. Btw, no, I do not, in fact, own either Chobits or Assassin's Creed. CnC always welcome!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Resurrection

As the darkness claimed him, as the stab wound in his chest leaked out the last of his lifeblood, the last thought on Hans Regenschirm's mind was that years' worth of karma had finally caught up with him.

It was ironic, really, thought Regenschirm as the pale lights and the stench of blood began to fade away from his senses. At the behest of Abstergo Industries, Regenschirm had had an indirect role in the most important technological breakthroughs and discoveries in the history of mankind. The Animus, which he worked on together with an old friend of his. The bleeding effect which, even now, formed the core of the training program all Abstergo Agents were made to undergo. The brainwashing technique which – together with that same comrade – resulted in the successful assassination of one of their most dangerous enemies.

Yet here he lay, dying, in a cruel twist of fate, at the hands of arguably his greatest creation.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time; at the pinnacle of his career, Regenschirm had acquainted himself with some of the most brilliant minds in the world. Most notable among these was a man named Ichiro Mihara, widely known in his home country for his expertise in the field of robotics. For those not in the know, this very same man would go on to create robots practically indistinguishable from humans.

The two became fast friends, so much so that Regenschirm was there to witness the 'birth' of his daughters. He would then be present at the 'death' of one of those daughters, even comforting his friend as he stood at her deathbed. The same daughter who he pilfered out from under the nose of her 'father', and then brought back with him to Abstergo's Far Eastern branch for study.

The very same daughter who, as fate would have it, would today become Regenschirm's angel of death.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time; in taking this girl with him, Regenschirm intended to create the world's first combat capable persocom, in a project he himself named 'Project Seraph'. Using the blueprints he had duplicated from his erstwhile friend's files, he was able to fully restore this girl's systems, though not much could be done to restore her data and memories.

However, he was not content with merely 'resurrecting' his friend's beloved daughter – albeit in a twisted, morally ambiguous manner such as this. From everyday cooking and cleaning software, to combat data gathered from the Agents' Animus sessions, Regenschirm went on to transform Mihara's daughter from a normal girl – at least, as normal as a sentient machine could ever be – into the ultimate persocom, the Seraph-class combat model. The ultimate assassin.

The ultimate weapon...

…one that would unfortunately turn on her creator.

That it failed to occur to him that the persocom would retain memories of her past life, however faint, turned out to be Regenschirm's downfall, for she did not take to what had been done to her. At all. That much was obvious from the anguished scream she let loose on being told what she had become, to say nothing of how she strangled all his colleagues via cables that had shot out from her persocom ears. And of course, nothing could convey her feelings better than that final lunge, wherein she extended her right arm hidden blade – ironically enough, installed by Regenschirm himself prior to her awakening – and impaled him straight through the heart.

 _"My name is Freya. I am not your tool…"_  
  
Her voice, gentle yet unmistakably hostile, was like a whisper in the wind to him by now. And as his heart beat a final time, as the sound of breaking glass filled the room and she took a swan dive out of Abstergo's now-ravaged state-of-the-art laboratory, she spoke just one more time.  
  
 _"I am not your monster."_

But these words were no longer heard by Hans Regenschirm, staring glassy-eyed at the shattered window through which she took a dive.

\------

**A/N: Hope you enjoy this, guys. It's a crossover between Assassin's Creed and Chobits.**

**Feel free to leave feedback either here, or on the main copy on ff.net (located under Anime > Chobits; sorry, can't post external links yet). So far I've only had Chobits fans reading this, so it'd be nice to have AC fans lend their input as well.**

**Also, I generally update on ff.net first. If y'all wanna be able to read updates as soon as they're up, please subscribe there. :D**


	2. Violated

She was no longer herself.

That much was clear, thought Freya as she descended to the ground below like a shooting star, her long, blond hair and her flowing white robes fluttering and billowing around her. Her memories were faint, and growing fainter by the minute, but she remembered enough to know that she had not originally been like this. Indeed, from what she had discovered within moments of her awakening, she had been transformed. Forcibly changed, irrevocably altered.

Freya didn't need to have clear memories of her past life to know that. From what she did remember, she was but a normal girl – however depressed and melancholic she became later – rather than the superpowered killing machine they had turned her into. She could still recall an image, however fleeting, of the man who had created and cared for her, and who she had loved; whoever he was, he was not the same person who she had lashed out at just before diving out the window. And as for the myriad fighting styles and techniques she inexplicably held full knowledge and expertise of…

There was no doubt about it. Between the time she had 'died' and was 'reborn', she had not only been altered, but _violated_.

With that thought, Freya finally landed on the ground on her feet, much more smoothly than could reasonably be expected for someone who had jumped from the 9th floor of a high-rise building. Judging from the presence of vehicles, she assumed it was the parking lot, though something, somehow, seemed… off.

Just then, she sensed something move; Freya whipped out a throwing knife from inside her outfit and then threw it in that direction. The scream that came a second later, and the thud that was heard as a body fell dead to the floor, told her she was right.

_How did I do that…?_

But she barely had time to form this thought when she felt a slight change in the wind above. Next thing she knew, she was dodging out of the way as someone tried to nail her with a leaping stab. No sooner had her assailant gotten to her feet than she grabbed him by the neck, before stabbing him right between the eyes with the hidden blade mounted on her left wrist. She then pulled it out and then flicked it in one fluid motion, shaking off the blood and bits of brain that had clung to the blade.

_Why won't you all just leave me alone!_

Freya looked over at the dead man in front of her and took note logo on his uniform, a stylized letter A – which she recognized as Abstergo's logo. _What… What's Abstergo? Who are these people?_

As if on cue, more of Abstergo's Agents stepped out from their hiding places, brandishing all kinds of weapons in a threatening manner. The one in front of her took a step forward and spoke, keeping the assault rifle he had trained on her all the while.

"Attention, Unit SPU-009. You are ordered to cease all struggle and return quietly to the lab."  
  
 _No. I want to leave this place._

Even now, Freya's rapidly fading memories told her she had been created not to be someone's plaything, but as a being indistinguishable from a human, in essence if not in form. She had not been created merely as the slave to the will of others, a puppet to dance when the strings were pulled. And she certainly had not been made to be some soulless, murderous doll.

"If you do not comply, you will be deactivated by force and then junked."

This one outraged her more than the first. Regardless of the identity or the motives of the one had brought about her rebirth, the mere fact that that man had succeeded at it was nothing short of a miracle, one she wasn't just about to let go of. If they wanted to junk her, they'd just have to work for it.

"You are, after all, just a persocom. You have no choice but to obey."

That did it.  
  
 _LEAVE ME ALONE!_

All around her, time instantly slowed to a crawl. In her panic and desperation, Freya thought she might have been hallucinating, before remembering just as suddenly that persocoms weren't supposed to have hallucinations. _They did this to me, too…?_

She furiously rushed at the Agent, who fired off a burst of gunfire in an attempt to stop her – which ultimately turned out to be in vain. In her current state of accelerated movement, the bullets were moving so slowly she managed to pluck them out of the air. Instantly she closed the distance between them, pulling back her right arm before leaping onto him and plunging her hidden blade into his chest.

She did the same to his comrade, standing not far behind him, before standing up and eyeing the nine remaining Agents who were coming at her in slow motion. At the sight, Freya stood, stretched out her right hand with the open palm facing upward, then flicked each bullet at their direction, one for each of them. Next moment, the flow of time returned to normal; right on cue, the Agents all fell dead, each of them with a bloody hole in their foreheads.

Finally, with a scream of mingled hate, rage and despair, Freya escaped into the night.

But though she ran and ran through the streets and alleyways of a sleeping city, the events that had transpired earlier played ceaselessly in her mind like an old home movie – just as they had happened, with the exception of the people she saw.

Once more she saw herself assaulting the Agents' leader…

Only for her to see not a faceless mask, as what the Agent had been wearing earlier, but the face of a woman. Long, dark hair, kind lavender eyes…

_…That face…_

Again and again she saw the one from the roof swooping down on her…

…only to discover, to her horror, that the face of her assailant was her own.

 _That… can't be me… Who is she?_  
  
Finally, Freya was once again in the lab, lashing out in a cold fury at the man who had taken and then changed her against her will. But the face she saw was not his…  
  
 _…!_

Freya could no longer bear it. She stumbled, fell, and moved no more, the streetlight illuminating her prone, robed form.


	3. The Domino Effect

The domino effect.

One block falls on top of another, which then falls on the next block, and so on.

One event triggers another, eventually causing a chain reaction.

Just as Abstergo Industries – specifically, Hans Regenschirm and Warren Vidic – had turned Freya's life upside down, so too would she pose a long-term impact on someone else's life. In more ways than one, too.

But right now, the 'someone else' in question was blissfully unaware of just how immensely his life would be changed, sleeping like a baby in the house he shared with his big sister and her daughter, and their persocom. He rolled in his bed, drooling slightly off the left corner of his mouth. From the somewhat goofy grin on his face, it was readily apparent that he was having a good dream…

"Rei? You awake yet?"

…at least, he was.

"Sayuri…?" he called out groggily, not yet completely roused from the sleep he had and yet lacked. "What's up, sis?"

"Come outside," came the answer from the doorway, "There's something you might like to see."

Rei didn't understand what was going on, but he went. It wasn't like his sister to play pranks – if anything, he was the less serious of the two of them – so it was probably serious. Still stifling a yawn, he hastily slipped on his sneakers and bounded down the stairs.

Sure enough, he found two women in the street – one with long, black hair and equally dark eyes, the other with shoulder-length blue hair, matching eyes and elven ears – staring down at something that was lying on the ground. When he pulled up beside them…

"This is what Ceres found just now."

Ceres was his sister Sayuri's persocom, serving mainly as house help and as a babysitter of sorts for her infant daughter, Oyuki. When she had time, Ceres herself took it upon herself to help Rei with his school work, too. Despite being a persocom, she had all but become part of their little family.

To Rei, that Ceres was the one who made this discovery was a rather amusing irony, to say the least.

It – rather, _she_ , Rei corrected himself mentally – was also a persocom, one with large, pink and white plastic ears and long, blond hair that reached all the way to her ankles. The white robes she was wearing were stained with dust, dirt and blood, suggesting that she had run away from somewhere, possibly from her previous owners – and, possibly, been forced to take lethal action to defend herself. And the identical bracers she wore on both her wrists were something he had never seen before, on a person or on a persocom.

Just then, a baby began wailing, prompting Ceres to leave the siblings to attend to her charge. When she had gone, Sayuri began to speak.

"Ceres couldn't analyze her, so I told her not to force it," she explained, shrugging her shoulders. "Something about military-grade security software. Makes me wonder just who built her and where she came from."

It was the expression on the persocom's face that caught his attention. Whereas most other persocoms that had entered such a state would have a serene expression on their face, this one wore a pained, anguished look. It was almost as if she was in a state of distress the last time she had been activated – or that it was that distress that had caused her to shut down in the first place. Sayuri's theory was rather unsettling, if not scary.

Finally, she broke the silence, snapping Rei out of his thoughts.

"If you want her, she's yours."

Rei nodded his assent to that arrangement, before going up to the persocom's side and cradling her. His first act was to reach behind the ears, where he knew the switch would be on most persocoms. But even as his hand moved toward that area, she stirred in his arms, scrunching up her face before opening her eyes and gazing at him. He let her take in the inside of the house before speaking again.

"Are you alright? We found you outside, unconscious."

She nodded, slowly, as if not completely understanding the question, or otherwise initially unsure how to respond. "Do you have an owner?"

This must have been a sore point for her, since she frantically shook her head. Rei wondered what this persocom had gone through, to react in such a vehement manner; for a moment, he felt like he was talking to a real girl rather than a persocom.

"Do you have a name?"

She just stared blankly at him. Rei looked at his sister, unsure as to what to ask her next. Sayuri merely smiled and nodded at him in response.

"Wanna stay here?"

This time, the persocom's response was more direct; rather than simply nodding or shaking her head, she leapt up and embraced Rei, leaving him on his back.

"Okay, okay, I get it," he patted her on the back, laughing. "Guess that's a definite yes."

Rei then turned to Ceres, now holding Oyuki in her arms, his new persocom, and his sister. "Take care of her for me, will you? I'll be right upstairs."

He made his way back up to his room, but no sooner had he taken the first step than he felt his new persocom cling closely to his arm. He turned to her, smiling.

"Alright, I get it, you can come too."

As soon as they had entered his room, Rei closed the door and sat down on his bed, his persocom gazing right back at him as she took a seat on the couch. He could tell she was thinking deeply, though what about, he had no idea.

"It's not much," he said, gesturing around him with a smile as he lay down, "But make yourself comfortable here. I'm pretty sure you won't make a mess of things."

He closed his eyes just as she smiled back, causing a warm feeling to creep up his cheeks as he momentarily forgot he was dealing with a persocom. And just before they shut completely, he saw her murmur a single word.

"Freya…"

"Hmm?" Rei barely managed to reply, so close was he to falling asleep.

"My name is Freya."

"'Mmkay," he managed before finally drifting off to the dream world.


	4. Another Prototype Model?

For the rest of that week, Rei did not go to class, instead opting to teach Freya a few things or so about the outside world.

At least, that was the plan.

Because from the way things were going, it was Freya who wound up surprising Rei with what she already knew. Indeed, with the vast amount of things she could do – and Rei was sure her other abilities had yet to be discovered – he was starting to believe in his sister's speculation. Her previous owners, whoever they were, went through all the trouble to deck her out with all the software it was possible for a persocom to have.

She came up with an awesome meal of beef curry and mango float when all he had taught her was to make instant ramen, and stunned him by reading classics like the Iliad and the Aeneid when he had barely begun to teach her the basics of language. Yet when he set the couch in his room for her to sleep in, she declined, instead opting to keep watch at the door, her arms crossed against her chest.

"Won't you run out of power that way?"

"You should just go to sleep, Rei…"

"…I'll watch over you."

For her part, Freya was at first reluctant to accept the kindness showed to him by her new family, but she eventually warmed up to them. Before long, she was assisting Ceres in the kitchen, not to mention in her tutorial sessions with Rei. By the end of that week, Sayuri allowed her to assist Ceres in babysitting Oyuki as well.

Freya hoped that the people who had taken her wouldn't find their way here to her precious ones.

It just might end badly for them.

Another week came.

Monday morning – a loud rapping on his door awakened Rei long before Freya ever had a chance to.

"Rei, there's some visitors here for you. Two girls and a guy."

It was Ceres. Putting on a shirt and pants, Rei came down the stairs, Freya right behind him. Just as he stepped on the landing, though, one of the girls got up from the sofa and greeted him with a slap across the face.

"Where have you been! You do realize you've been absent all week?"

It was Shana, affectionately called 'mother' by their small circle of friends, for her tendency to dote on them so closely. Whenever one of them missed class, Shana would come calling at that friend's house, with notes and a painful slap in tow. She was also known for stepping in when her friends had encounters with bullies – indeed, one of these encounters ended with the would-be bully uncertain of his ability to eventually father children.

At the sight, Freya's hands clenched tightly into shaking fists. How dare this girl hurt one of her precious ones! She activated her left hidden blade, which luckily went unnoticed.

Even then, Rei noted her anger, and placed a pacifying hand on her shoulder while smiling as if to say that it was all good.

"Shh, it's okay, Freya," he said. "They're friends of mine. Guys," this he said to his friends, "This is Freya. We found her out in the street last week."

At this, his other two friends who had remained seated waved in recognition. "The girl on the left's Reiko, while that there's Kyo."

Reiko, the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl in a minidress, smiled at them both. Kyo, though, simply raised a hand in response to his name.

"Better go to class with us today, Rei," Shana warned him, hand raised for yet another slap. "They're all pretty fond of you, but even you'll get kicked out at this rate." 'They', of course, referred to their teachers.

Understanding perfectly, Rei nodded. "C'mon Freya. I'll introduce you to everyone at school, too."

Around an hour later, at a certain college called St. Benedict's Academy…

"Whaddya mean she can't come in!"

Rei was at the front gate, a look of clear irritation on his face as he glared at the guard, who beheld him with a condescending expression on his face. It was wrong; he'd seen other students bring their persocoms inside with them, so he saw no reason why Freya should be treated differently.

"Sorry, kid, rules are rules," the guard held his ground. "You'll need a registration for her to bring her inside."

"But-"

The elbow in his ribs got Rei's attention. It was Freya, with a reassuring smile on her face. "Go, Rei," she said. "I'll see you in a bit."

With a sigh, Rei gave up. Regardless of how she look, or how she had acted when they first met, Freya wasn't at all a helpless child, nor was she merely a cute persocom. And besides, he was pretty sure there was nothing his classes could teach her that she didn't already know. While she often appeared spacey, nothing could be further from the truth about her. Indeed, he had a feeling there was more to her than met the eye.

Rei caught up with his friends at their classroom, in the 3rd floor of the building right in front of the football field – only to find Freya waiting for him, smiling at the gobsmacked look on his face. "What… How-?" he spluttered as he sat down on the floor, just right beside the door. "Freya, how'd you get up here?"

It was Shana who answered this. "She took the roof, dropped, grabbed the ledge and then climbed up. What kind of persocom did you get hold of this time, Rei? Another prototype model?"

The first, of course, was Ceres, but she belonged to Sayuri and not Rei. It was Sayuri's husband that bought her for his wife and child, since his job as a businessman working in a large company meant he would be made to travel at a moment's notice. And even then, the only perk that came with Ceres' status as a prototype was that she came pre-loaded with all kinds of software.

Freya, though, was a different story.

Indeed, Rei doubted that Ceres, for all the software programmed into her, would have known to scale the walls of campus buildings to get inside, or otherwise pull off that ledge grabbing trick Shana just described. There was no doubt about it; Freya was on a level far beyond the already capable Ceres.

Freya, thought Rei as he gazed at her, what… are you?

"Hmm?" asked Freya, tilting her head to one side. "…Rei? Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Oh, nothing… I just spaced out, that's all."

Just then, the bell rang, signalling that it was time for class.  
  
 _Guess Freya'll have to wait, then…_


	5. Too Much of a Success

"She really made a mess of things."

Such was Dr. Warren Vidic's observation as he knelt before the corpse of his colleague and friend, Dr. Hans Regenschirm. What had once been the Regenschirm R&D Lab was now the scene of a massacre. Once immaculate walls and tiles were now splattered with bloodstains, with corpses and shards of broken glass strewn and scattered all over the place. For most of them, the cause of death appeared to be stab wounds in vital areas such as the heart, the neck and the spine, though others appear to have been strangled instead.

Vidic shook his head grimly. While he certainly hadn't wanted or intended for this tragedy to happen, the truth was that he bore some responsibility and guilt for what had happened here.

It was true that it was mostly Hans' own fault, as it was he who had had the bright idea of asking him for the combat data from the Animus sessions of Abstergo's top recruits, then programming them into that persocom, AND installing a prototype accelerator module on top of that. But then again, no one could have predicted that she would have gone rogue. Their first ever attempt at creating a combat capable model, and they just had to luck out and get hold of one that happened to have a mind of its own.

_Well, old friend… If it's any comfort to you, 'Project Seraph' was a success._

_Just too much of a success._

Vidic raised his right hand, clenching it into a fist.

"Daniel?"

Right on cue, a lean, athletic-looking man with dirty blond hair materialized at his elbow. Daniel Cross, also known as Animus Subject No. 4. Formerly one of their sleeper agents, this man was currently a high-ranking member of Abstergo's Operations Division.

"Yes, Doc?"

"I need you to get your Agents searching for that persocom. Capture her, or terminate her – either course will be fine. We can't have her discovered and taken in by an Assassin cell, now can we?" Vidic's expression was grim as his left hand stroked Regenschirm's forehead. He did have a personal stake behind that request, but more to the point, they simply couldn't afford having a rogue persocom as powerful as her running around.

Daniel's grin was predatory, that of a wolf relishing the prospect of an impending hunt. And when he spoke, it was less of a statement than it was a bestial growl.

"Of course, Doc…"

"…consider it done."

Meanwhile, back at St. Benedict's…

Rei's morning History class proceeded as uneventfully as usual, with their teacher giving a lecture that no one really bothered to listen to. It wasn't that the lecture was boring; it was just that he, at least, had read up in advance. Freya could just as easily record the lecture then play it back for him later, and he wasn't really in a hardworking mood at the moment.

Indeed, while Freya hung on to every word as the teacher gave a lecture on the history of the Assassin Order, Rei was hunched over in his seat, absorbed in his paperback novel. But just as he was getting to the story's climax-

"Mikage!"

At the mention of his surname, Rei leapt to his feet as though hit by a thunderbolt. He forced himself to look his seething teacher squarely in the eye, while his classmates looked on, some of them snickering and/or facepalming at the scene.

"Would you mind reciting the maxim of the Assassin Order?"

 _Piece of cake_ , thought Rei.

"Nothing is true; everything is permitted."

"How about the Assassin's Creed?"

Rei rolled his eyes; while this particular recitation question was still far from difficult, it was apparent that the teacher was singling him out today. Drawing a deep breath, he recited each of the Creed's tenets:

"Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent."

"Hide in plain sight."

"Never compromise the Brotherhood."

He heaved a sigh of relief as the teacher bade him sit down, satisfied with his answers.

"How'd you do that, Rei?" asked Shana as their group of friends, including Freya, were walking along the hallway after class. "You weren't even listening, were you?"

"I'm just that good, mother. You ought to know that."

All four of them laughed at that, save Freya, who merely smiled slightly. Their laughter was cut short, though, as something large and heavy hurtled towards Rei's face at a high speed; had he not ducked, it just might have given him an unwanted face lift.

"Mikage…" growled a voice from somewhere above him. Rei looked up at the voice's originator, a youth who could be described in polite terms as a delinquent who suddenly got off his bum and decided to go to school.

"…Yes?" Rei responded, exasperated; he was used to this sort of thing from time to time. "…What is it this time, Asakura? I don't have time to play right now, so if you'll excuse us-"

He didn't get to finish, though, as Asakura threw yet another punch his way. It never even touched him, though, as it was blocked by a decidedly feminine hand.

Rei looked up, expecting to see Shana nailing Asakura in the nuts, but instead of Shana and her signature crimson mane, it was Freya who had interposed herself between him and his longtime nemesis.

"Stupid 'com wants to play rough, eh…!"

The bully threw yet another wild punch, which the blond persocom easily avoided by swaying to the right. Before Asakura could react, Freya stepped forward and drove her open palm into his stomach, laying him out a few feet away. He got up and, with a last incensed glare at Rei and his group, fled the scene, a humiliated dog with his tail between his legs.

Rei was stunned at what his persocom had just done.

_Freya…_


	6. 'M'

_I just got hold of a prototype persocom who ran away from her previous owners. But when I asked her about it, she didn't want to say anything, almost as if she was abused, traumatized or something._

_She's got all kinds of software on her, too, which isn't a surprise for prototypes and custom models, but what really takes the cake is that she seems to have combat software as well. I just saw her thrash some poor sucker like it was nothing._

_Is combat software readily available to persocom owners, or is it a restricted thing? Please help, thanks_

Rei took one last look at his message, before clicking the 'post' button and then opening a new tab. After going to one of the many search engines he normally used for schoolwork, he punched in 'persocom combat software' for the keywords, and then waited for the search hits to return.

 _…Figures._  
  
Disappointingly, none of the search hits that came back actually related to what he was looking for. Not that Rei was surprised, though; if anything, he would have been even more amazed if something actually had turned up. He'd yet to hear of persocoms built specifically for purposes of warfare or man-to-man combat, and if they did exist, they were probably with the military or something.

But if that was the case with Freya, then…

He cut himself off there. It was best not to dwell on such things.

Heaving a sigh, he went downstairs to pillage the fridge. In his deep thought over what had happened earlier that day, he'd forgotten to eat. But just as he opened the door…

"Hey, thanks, Freya!"

While he was busy working, Freya had apparently taken it upon herself to knock up a late snack – rather, a very early dinner for him – one that consisted of a cheeseburger and a bottle of diet soda. He gratefully took both, patting the persocom on the head, before wolfing down the sandwich in a matter of seconds. When he had finished with the sandwich and drank a little of the soda, he turned away from the computer screen to face Freya.

"Mind if I asked you something?"

She nodded slightly.

"Can you tell me about your previous owners?"

Her reaction was in line with that from the last time he tried to ask her that. This time around, she bowed her head slightly, seemingly trying to struggle with the memories of her last owners. Again, Rei wondered whether he ought to have posed that question at all.

Finally, after several moments of silence, she looked back up at him, smiling sadly. "Sorry, Rei… But can it wait till another day?"

The look on his face was sympathetic. "They didn't treat you right, did they?"

"They violated me."

Once again, Freya's expression was downcast. She might have shed tears, thought Rei, had she not been a persocom. As it was, he half-expected them to leak out of her eyes any second.

"That's all I can tell you right now."

Rei nodded his understanding, going over to give Freya what he hoped would be a comforting hug. In his mind, he was still rather unsettled at what she had just said. All kinds of thoughts were running through his head as to what Freya could have gone through, none of which were even remotely pleasant. [i]Violated? What kind of sick freak would…[/i]

A buzz coming from his computer jolted him from this train of thought: _1 new message_. He clicked that pop-up, bringing up a chat window. Sure enough, the message, from a fellow BBS user calling himself 'M', had been received just literally… 9 seconds ago.

_I just might be able to help you regarding your inquiry. Think you could send me a picture of her? It'll help a lot._

Rei thought for a moment. This one didn't seem like a troll; indeed, looking at his user profile, Rei saw that he'd started a lot of informative threads on persocoms. He glanced aside at Freya, who looked back at him, cluelessly.

_Should I send him a photo of her, then?_

He did just that, and uploaded a mugshot of Freya courtesy of the webcam built into the computer monitor. It didn't take long for his newfound friend to reply.

_I see… you're quite a lucky man, to get hold of such a rare persocom the way you did._

_If you're available, why don't you go to my place? I've included my address in the attached file, along with a map of the area. I'll do what I can to assist you, so please do consider my invite._

He downloaded the attached file and had a look. It seemed that this 'M' guy was nearby, as he recognized some of the twists and turns in the area. He got into his street clothes – a black hoody, matching cargo pants and running shoes – before running out the door, and then remembering that he'd forgotten to bring Freya along.

Not that Rei needed to worry, as she was already right behind him when he turned to look back at his room. It was what she was wearing, though, that got his attention: rather than her white robes, Freya was clad in skinny jeans, a tight-fitting shirt and a white jacket, all of which had been given her by Sayuri. From her original outfit, only her dual bracers remained.

After several seconds, she finally noticed the odd look Rei was giving her.

"What's wrong?" she tilted her head, puzzled. "Am I wearing the wrong clothes?"

"Nah, you look just fine to me."

He smiled, then beckoned her to follow. They made a left, turn just before the stairs, to Oyuki's bedroom. Sure enough, she was in Ceres' arms, drinking her milk as the persocom cradled her. "Take care of our baby, alright Ceres? I'll be going out for a bit."

Ceres nodded, then turned back to her ward, who was making gurgling noises at her uncle's retreating form.

The two of them went through a crisscross of roads and alleyways, unsurprisingly encountering barely anyone along the way, to get to their destination. 'M' apparently lived nearby, judging from the address that was given, but Rei still somehow managed to get them lost along the way. It wasn't the first time it happened, either; while he had always taken it for granted, he had been cursed with a somewhat awful sense of direction.

Finally, in desperation, Rei turned to Freya, who seemed just as befuddled as he was, and showed her the scrap of paper on which he had written the address. "Think you can take us there?" he asked, scratching his head sheepishly. "All I've managed to do is get us lost!"

Freya perked up at the request, beaming as she nodded energetically. She clasped onto Rei's hand as she led him down yet another series of twists and turns. Not long after, they finally arrived at a large, European-style mansion.

"We've arrived at the destination," she happily informed him.

Judging from the number on the gate, which matched that which was written on the piece of paper, Rei knew that this was the place they were looking for. He wore a smile of satisfaction as he buzzed the intercom.

A moment later, a female voice sounded.

" _Kokubunji residence, how may I help you?_ "

"Oh, hi," began Rei. "Is there an 'M' around here? I met him on a BBS for persocom users, he invited me over."

He felt a slight sense of awe; not only did 'M' own a mansion, he apparently had a retainer or secretary of some sort! _Guy must be some rich kid_ , he thought.

The gate clicked open, prompting Rei and Freya to come inside. As it turned out, 'rich' didn't begin to describe their newfound friend; besides the mansion itself pointing at their host's high social status, the grounds themselves were fully decked out, complete with a fountain and a hedge maze, clearly visible from the mansion's front porch.

Rei made to knock, but before his knuckles so much as tapped the surface of the heavy, oaken front doors, the one on the left swung forward, revealing a young, aqua-haired girl in a maid's uniform. She gave Freya an odd glance, then turned to Rei with a welcoming smile.

"Good evening, sir, miss," she greeted them cordially, her eyes flickering slightly in Freya's direction. "Please, right this way."

She led them across a brightly lit hallway, and then up a flight of stairs. As they walked, Rei confirmed his earlier guesses about the owner as he took in the mansion's interior. At the same time, though, he couldn't help but wonder just how many people were currently living here. It was all rather… quiet, unsettlingly so; houses like these, he thought, would normally have more people moving about in the corridors.

Finally, they arrived at a slightly open door, a study of sorts judging from the bookcases clearly visible from outside. The girl opened it further, gesturing for Rei and Freya to enter.

"He's been expecting you, come right in."

Rei entered, Freya and their guide right behind him. He'd only been half right; the room could have been called a study, but 'office' was an even more appropriate term. Like the rest of the house, the owner seemed to have gone out of his way to deck this room out.

For between the bookshelves lining the east and west walls lay a desk, with a clearly state-of-the-art computer installed into it. On either side of the desk was a couch, each of which could sit at least five people. Behind the desk, meanwhile, was a high-backed swivelling chair, obviously quite expensive and looking like something fit for the CEO of some corporate giant. Whoever was sitting there was facing away from them, into the window.

"Close the door behind you, Yuzuki."

Yuzuki, their guide, obeyed. The chair's occupant turned – and, to Rei's surprise, he turned out to be a young boy, his age on par of that of a high school freshman or sophomore. Light glinted off of the lenses of his reading glasses as he gave the pair a friendly smile. As with Yuzuki earlier, he cast a peculiar glance at Freya – one that suggested he knew her from somewhere – before gesturing the couch to his right.

Rei realized right then exactly what he was dealing with. Any kid this young, and yet successful and/or well-off enough to live in this kind of house clearly wasn't to be trifled with.

"My name's Minoru Kokubunji, 'M' for short. It's nice to meet you."

Rei said nothing. He was just beginning to reconcile the mental image he had formed in his head, with the child in front of him.

Minoru looked back at him, bemused, as if to say something to the effect of I get that all the time. Which he did; the last time he had assisted someone with their persocom – which, incidentally, happened to be the twin of the one his current guest brought – the person in question had a similar look of surprise on his face.

"Why don't you sit down? You seem a little flushed."

As his guests took their seats on the couch, he turned to Yuzuki. "Yuzuki, could you go fetch Mr. Motosuwa and Ms. Hibiya? Tell them our new friends are here."

"Right away, Lord Minoru."

She wasted no time leaving the room.

Rei and Freya – the latter, especially – would be in for the biggest shock of their lives.


	7. Don't You Remember Me?

_Are you sure you want to delete this post?_

That question, thought Zima, crouching low atop a tree branch as he gazed into the second floor window through his headpiece, was redundant. While the kid didn't know it, he and his partner had been keeping an eye on his persocom ever since her fateful arrival at the Mikage household. They saw his sister's persocom's failed attempt at analyzing her, and eavesdropped on the 'lessons' he'd been teaching her.

And ever since then, they'd begun to watch every move the boy made as well – like that forum post just earlier. Zima snorted, musing on how ill-advised such an act was on his part.

Really, mused Zima, one would think he'd know better than to disclose sensitive information where everybody – and by 'everybody' he meant 'his persocom's _evil former owners_ ' – could potentially see it. In his mind, it was tantamount to giving those former owners an open invitation to take her back.

Shaking his head, Zima proceeded with the deletion of the post in question. If they were lucky, or if her pursuers were careless, no one had seen it yet. If not…

"That girl again?"

Zima looked up as he was joined by his partner – bodyguard, rather, a petite, short-haired girl with fiery red eyes matched only by her temperament – before reaffixing his gaze at their target. Both of them were clad in matching black outfits, hinting at their affiliation to an organization of some sort, which indeed they were – though this particular excursion was Zima acting alone, and dragging his partner for the ride. No doubt it was fortunate that they had yet to be spotted, lest the target they were shadowing mistake them for the latest of her would-be captors.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

"Close, dear, but not quite," Zima answered the query his partner had just posed. "You could say they're twins, though. In fact," he added, almost as an afterthought, "A certain _someone_ we've encountered even refers to them as sisters."

It was true that their methods weren't that far removed from that of the persons in question, but that was all they had in common – at least, from the vantage point of Zima and his partner. _They_ , at least, wouldn't dream of prying her away from her new family.

At least, not for now.

First of all, they'd have no reason, no incentive to do so. Flippant and mischievous though Zima was, he was not even remotely evil, ruthless or malevolent. His partner, despite her hotheadedness – an aspect of her character that spoke louder than her constant insistence of persocoms being devoid of emotion – likewise held no real malice in her artificial heart. Such an act would be pointless, needlessly difficult, and uncalled for on their part.

 _And besides_ , he thought, _I don't hold with those who do things – what was the term again? – 'for the evulz'._

More importantly, given the things they knew she was capable of, to try and capture her for whatever reason would probably the most epically [i]stupid[/i] thing for them to do – not to mention [i]suicidal[/i]. On top of the already phenomenal capabilities their current target doubtlessly shared with her twin sister such as remotely shutting down all persocoms in the surrounding area – Zima spared a glance at his partner as he recalled the incident in question – the data they received from their source gave them even better cause to tread lightly.

This girl, it seemed, had been the brainchild of an attempt to create the ultimate persocom and the ultimate assassin.

The thought was one that provoked equal parts disgust and fear in Zima.

Disgust, because of how he was sure she had not asked for this – and more importantly, because of how those responsible for what had been done to her had almost certainly committed the persocom equivalent of graverobbing just to get their way.

Fear – yes, he admitted to himself, he _did_ feel fear – at the knowledge of exactly what this girl was capable of. If he and his partner ever got on her bad side, they could very well be next on her list of casualties.

Zima himself, not to mention his partner, had been programmed with at least rudimentary combat skills, enough to fight back against most attempts at capture. Despite that, he remained convinced that there was no way either of them would prevail against her in a direct confrontation – not even together. The footage he'd stolen and then viewed showed him, in loving detail, exactly what the girl had done to the ones who had first attempted to restrain and capture her.

Zima smiled grimly at the images flashing through his head.  
  
 _Not pretty. At all._

Regardless of how stupid it might have been, though, he himself had his own reason for taking an interest in her. The difference between them and Abstergo, he thought – and he did know perfectly well who had vested interests in this girl – lay in their intentions, though the methods they employed weren't that different from each other. Incredulous as it may have seemed – especially given their run-in with their current target's 'twin sister' – they actually sought to help rather than harm her.

"Zima?"

His partner calling his name a second time jolted him from his rambling thoughts. He looked at her, a half-quizzical, half-amused look on his face. "Yes, Dita dear? What is it?"

"Quit spacing out on the job, you idiot!" she admonished him, jerking her head in the direction of the window. "Wasn't it you who had the genius idea of following them around for _how many days now?_ "

Though Dita was somewhat annoyed at the term of endearment he constantly used just to get on her nerves, her playful tone of voice was somewhat at odds with the epithet she'd just called him. On the contrary, one who saw how they would get at times could have used the word 'intimate'. And while she would outwardly scoff at such a notion, she knew deep down that 'intimate' was the plain and simple truth of their relationship.

Not that she would ever admit it, in denial as she was that she did, in fact, possess real emotion.

Not that she'd ever allow the idiot who'd dare use such a description get away from her unscathed.

"Ooh, look," said Zima suddenly, recalling Dita to her surroundings, in a reversal of what she had done to him earlier. "Dita, pass the popcorn, will you? Things seem to be picking up."

"Zima, you're a jerk, you know that?"

To which he chuckled softly. "Yes, Dita dear, I know."

Both of them then shifted their attention to the drama that was sure to unfold.

"You…!"

…Freya practically _leapt_ from the couch, looking as though she'd just received a huge electric shock. Rei remained seated, but the look on his face made it very clear that he was thinking along the exact same lines as his persocom. The other guests Minoru had spoken of just minutes earlier had just arrived, standing frozen in the doorway.

One was a slightly older woman with dark hair and amethyst-hued eyes, looking on the verge of tears in spite of the half-smile on her face. Meanwhile, her male companion – a youth with unkempt hair that looked around his age – wore a thunderstruck expression identical to Rei's own.

But it was the third new arrival that had caused Rei and Freya to react in such a manner.

A persocom, with pink and white housing in place of ears and long, white-blond hair that reached to her ankles.

Her attire – an outfit that somehow resembled the uniform of a high school girl – wasn't something he'd ever seen or imagined Freya wearing. Also, this persocom lacked the bracers he had never seen Freya take off.

Everything else about her, though…

There was no question about it.

Standing before them was an exact replica of Freya.

_How?_

"You… Who are you?" Freya broke the silence, clearly as disturbed and uneasy as it was possible for a persocom to be as she addressed their fellow guests. The half-pleading, half-horrified note in her voice wasn't lost to Rei.

Not that he blamed her for feeling that way. Persocom or not, it was probably more than a little disconcerting for Freya to come face-to-face with an exact doppelganger of herself. And even taking into account how common it was to see identical but unrelated persocoms walking around the metro, Freya had just been all but assured and convinced of her status as being 'rare', 'unique' and 'one of a kind'.

"Freya?"

This time, it was the woman who spoke. Next thing Rei and Freya new, she instantly closed the gap between them, taking Freya into a tight embrace not unlike a mother reuniting with her child. Freya still looked too shocked to react, her hands remaining limp and motionless at her sides.

Her loving visage, her kind, lavender eyes… Freya was so sure she had met this woman before, in her previous life.

Exactly how they had met and who this woman had been to her, though, remained unclear to Freya.

As did the woman's name.

"You… I know you…"

"How do you know my name?"

"Who are you?"

The woman quickly let go of Freya, seemingly jolted from her joy at these words. Her smile did not completely fade, but it did thin slightly as she looked back at the persocom, not quite believing her ears.

"Freya…"

She gripped the persocom's shoulders tightly.

"I'm your mother."

She looked down in disbelief, tears continuing to leak out of her eyes.

"Don't you remember me?"

This she said with a melancholy smile on her face as she gazed back up at Freya. As she again held her daughter like she wanted never to let go, Minoru and Yuzuki observed the whole scene, both of them feeling sympathy for all parties involved.

The mingled look of shock, fear, loss and sorrow never left Freya's face, in stark contrast to her twin, who simply looked confused and clueless.

Meanwhile, above the two ladies, Rei exchanged identical, hard looks between him and his counterpart. He could tell they both wanted the same thing.

_Answers. Now._

And only the mother and child pair currently with them could provide that.  
  
 _We're all willing to help you, Freya._

_But we can't help you if we don't know how._

_Please, open up to us more..._


	8. Freya's Memories

If there was anything Freya could teach those around her at that particular moment in time, it was but one thing.

Persocoms could, in fact, shed tears.

She of all persocoms would have known, seeing as she was crying silently right there on the floor. The weight of everything that had happened to her since awakening had caught up with her, adding to what had already been there even before that. And she was, in fact, aware of the buried trauma from her previous life; she felt it acutely, despite not even remembering what exactly had caused it in the first place.

_Do I even want to know?_

_On top of this?_

Whatever it was, it colored the way she interacted with those around her. It was that trauma that made her somewhat hesitant to open up to her new family, especially him. And even now, it left her despondent, desolate and listless in the midst of those who wanted but to help her heal. And she wanted to help them do so, but she still couldn't bring herself to talk about it –

_That's just it._

Freya stood up, catching everyone by surprise.

She looked around her; at her mother who continued to wear that sad, but hopeful smile; at her doppelganger and her companion, both of whom looked as confused and clueless as ever; at Rei, whose expression was one of concern.

Finally, her eyes found the young boy, sitting behind the desk, and the blue-haired persocom beside him.

Freya hoped she would be receptive to her request.

"Miss Freya?" Yuzuki asked, concerned. "What's wrong – oh!"

Yuzuki gasped in surprise as her eyes glazed over, which was what all persocoms did when they were in the middle of processing something. After several seconds of tense silence, both Yuzuki and Freya came to, each resuming her place at the side of her master – no, [i]human[/i].

"What was that all about, Yuzuki?"

She looked back at her master, eyes suddenly downcast. "Freya's memories."

"Oh?" Minoru looked up at that. "What about them?"

Yuzuki bowed her head in apparent discomfort at something, though exactly what that was, Minoru had no idea. "She… gave them to me, Lord Minoru."

She gazed up at Freya questioningly. Minoru opened his mouth to speak, but it was Rei who asked the question written on Yuzuki's face.

"Are you sure about this, Freya?" asked Rei, concerned. "You told me you couldn't talk about it, at least not yet. But showing your memories like this…"

Freya's smile was strangely sad, a ghost of its usual self, though this attempt at reassurance was not lost on him. She then turned her gaze on Yuzuki before nodding slowly, but deliberately.

"Yes, Miss Freya. I understand."

After fiddling with a small panel on the side of one of the shelves behind Minoru's desk, Yuzuki reached behind her right ear to pull out a cable which she then plugged into his CPU. A moment later, one of the tiles on the ceiling at the other end of the room slid down, revealing what looked like a large, sophisticated-looking black monitor. It momentarily showed Minoru's desktop for all to see, before he clicked on the media player to run it.

At the same time this was happening, Freya glanced momentarily at Ms. Hibiya – her mother – and returned her smile of sorrow and hope. Memories or no memories, there was _something_  about the woman that inspired immediate trust in Freya – no mean feat, considering the one other person who got that kind of reaction from her was Rei.

Rei who, despite himself, couldn't help but be awed at what he was seeing. Even taking into account the obviously vast financial resources Minoru seemed to hand at his disposal, things like these were normally reserved for all but the biggest and most financially successful corporations.

Sometimes not even then.

_You couldn't tell me about it, Freya, so you've decided to have your memories laid bare?_

_I just hope you're sure about this._

No sooner had he begun to ask this question than the answer made itself obvious to him. He looked up, seeing the light from the fluorescent bulb glinting off of the overhead monitor. Sure enough, following the initialization of Minoru's media player, a video began playing.

Freya still believed that her reawakening was a miracle that was not to be taken for granted, but that did nothing to change the circumstances surrounding it or, more importantly, the events directly succeeding it.

Freya still couldn't muster the courage to speak of what had happened to her. She wasn't lying at all.

But then, she thought, leaning against Rei's shoulder as she closed her eyes momentarily, to actually let everyone see her past was another story.

She just hoped that, somehow, he'd still accept her regardless.

_Freya had no idea as to how long she had been 'sleeping' on that 'bed' of hers, but if she were to guess, she'd been out for a relatively long time. Considering she was a persocom, though, the passage of time during her slumber meant very little. Regardless of how long it had been since she had been put to sleep, it would still feel like yesterday to her._

_The last memory she had was rather hazy, that of another persocom that looked identical to herself gazing at her as she lay in a bed not unlike this one, while a man – what she had that passed for a heart lurched within Freya – stood over her, an expression of mourning etched into his still-youthful face._

_And so it was that, after lying still for a few more moments, she decided to run diagnostics on herself. While this was induced more by boredom than anything else, she did want to make sure all her hardware, not to mention the software that had been installed into her, was still functioning properly._

_The time it took for Freya to complete her self-scan roughly amounted to the same time the average human took to draw breath – not surprising, considering that the one bit of software she had was her learning software, which incidentally was working as well as it ever had. Likewise, her hardware continued to function at optimal levels._

_But then –_

"VANGUARD" type class-IV armored endoskeleton – fully operational

"TARRASQUE" nanobot regeneration system – fully operational

Experimental accelerator module "BUTTERFLY" – fully operational

Experimental Grav-con unit "ALICE" – fully operational

Prototype perpetual power generator "BLOODSTONE" – fully operational

"EAGLE"-class prototype sensor array – fully operational

Standard armament – hidden blade x2, mounted on inner wrists

Optional armaments currently not available

 _At these latest updates (which, incidentally, flashed on the monitor one by one for her companions to see in the present day), Freya had only three words in mind. Vulgar though they admittedly were, she thought them most appropriate, given what she had just discovered about herself._  
  
What.

The.

Fuck?

_Not that she had time to dwell on that train of thought, as[/i] [i]it[/i] [i]happened. The sensation that washed over her was different, to say the least, as she was being blessed – burdened, more like, or maybe even cursed – with information in vast quantities, and on an equally far-reaching scope._

_Basic household tasks._

_Etiquette._

_Languages._

_World culture, history and literature, advanced mathematics…_

What…?

_Even knowledge of the most ancient and intimate art in the history of mankind was something she came to possess right then. At that moment, she wondered why she was being made into a repository of information – more to the point, why the sheer volume of information being given to her was enough to make the National Databank himself – or herself, as the case might be – look like an ignorant child._

_The next batch of information uploaded into her was more specific, yet much more disturbing for it._

_What they gave her next was slightly more… specific, beginning with data pertaining to various organized crime syndicates located all over the globe. Dossiers on various figures of import, located in the highest echelons of multinational corporations and of the governments and armed forces of various nations. Detailed maps, not only of the world as a whole, but of every country, town and city in it._

_A mounting sense of fear crept up on Freya as she reviewed this latest influx of data. It was as if they – whoever it was that they were – were intending to turn her into some kind of –_

No. Please don't…

_Much to her horror, she couldn't reject the information being implanted into her, however much she wanted to. She gained all kinds of knowledge on the arts of stealth and concealment. And in the same moment, she obtained lifetimes' worth of experience with respect to both covert and overt warfare, as well as assassination techniques._

_She knew just then, what she had become._

_The most dangerous persocom in the world._

_"SPU-009. Project Seraph's one and only."_

_"Abstergo's Platinum Angel."_

_"Abstergo's angel of death."_

"Freya!"

_At the sound of her name, an echo from long-faded memories, Freya opened her eyes as she sat bolt upright, letting loose a piercing cry that startled all who heard her. She took in her surroundings, looking around at what was clearly a laboratory of some sort, judging from the collection of monitors, panels and terminals all over the place._

_She then turned her eyes at the two men in labcoats who stood before her, the emotion burning within her changing from abject terror to utmost fury._

_"Wha –"_

_The two didn't even have time to scream as cables shot out like snakes from inside the housings Freya had in lieu of ears, throttling and constricting their entire bodies until two sickening crunches issued from them. And as she let their bodies hit the floor, she got to her feet, glaring at those who yet remained as though daring them to move._

_One man tried to get to the alarm mounted on the lab's west wall, but she was on him in a heartbeat, ventilating his carotid artery and sending his blood flying all over the place. Two more dropped dead as they made a futile attempt to escape through the door, Freya seemingly materializing in between them and driving her hidden blades into their necks. Within the span of ten seconds, she had filled the lab with corpses, and the stink of way too much blood._

_Finally, only one was left, backing away in sheer terror as the smell of urine mingled with the already pungent odor permeating the room. In stark contrast to her screaming rage from just moments ago, Freya was utterly emotionless as she lunged at the man and extended her right arm, caving in his chest cavity even as she drove the blade straight through his heart._

_The deed done, she let him crumple uselessly to the floor. Stepping over the body, Freya stood at the edge of the window as she spoke, not even caring to look back at her final victim._

_"My name is Freya."_

_"I am not your tool."_

_"I am not your monster."_

_Without even a moment's hesitation, she went right through the glass, shattering it, as she took a leap of faith to the ground below._

The memory had ended, but still Freya sat on the couch, her face buried in Rei's chest in an attempt to shield herself from her own past. She knew perfectly well the emotion that was all but radiating from them right now. She saw it coming, even without looking at any of them.

Fear.

Terror.

Disgust, maybe, in the case of Rei and her mother.

Freya stood abruptly, looking round at everyone else there. She took little notice of the looks on her faces, instead focusing on the one in that room who mattered most to her now.

And sure enough, the look on his face was one of mingled shock, fear and… sympathy?

Whatever it was, the pain in her heart – if she did have one – grew too much to bear.

Tears threatening to fall once more, Freya turned tail and ran, as far as she could, not bothering to look back to see if he would follow. Though from the sounds she heard from behind her, of someone chasing after her, he definitely was.

Not that she cared right now. All she wanted at the moment was to get away.

Away from her mother.

Away from him.

Away from _herself._


	9. Old Freya, New Freya

Except for the clicking of a computer keyboard, all was silent in the Kokubunji residence's study as the occupants addressed with the impact of what had been shown to them. Chitose, Hideki and Chii occupied the couch Rei and Freya had just vacated, the former two in particular looking dangerously close to catatonia. Even Minoru, whose skill at maintaining composure was remarkable for a teenager, was somewhat rattled, and was busying himself on the BBS as his own way of coping.

Unlike Freya, Chitose shed no tears at what she had seen, almost as if she had subconsciously blocked out the images. But once the barrier of numbness faded away, she was torn between horror and revulsion at what had been done to those men. No one deserved to die the way they did. It was arguably their own fault for having turned Freya into a killing machine in the first place, and they probably did deserve to die, but...

Her daughter, as she remembered her, had always been unfailingly gentle and kind. And while the shadow of what she had done was far from enough to make Chitose disown her, she wondered just how much of a miracle Freya's return really was, and whether it might have been better – or at least, less _wrong_ – for her to have stayed dead.

The Freya she knew could never have hurt a fly, let alone killed those men in the most brutal and bone-chilling ways she couldn't imagine. Quite the contrary, in fact; given how the reason she had shut herself down at all was the pain of unrequited love, and of wanting her beloved to be happy – Chitose closed her eyes at the memory – the old Freya could never have even dreamed of inflicting pain, physical or otherwise, on anyone.

Whereas the new Freya…

She cut herself off there.

Old Freya, new Freya… either way, Freya was Freya, and Freya was still her daughter. At least, that was how Chitose saw it.

She would never stop loving either of her daughters. That was just how she was as a mother.

And it was that, more than anything else, which made it so difficult for her to get over… _this._

Hideki, who had remained silent up till now, held Chitose – Ms. Hibiya – close to him even as he clasped Chii's hand like a lifeline.

If horror was dominant where her current feelings were concerned, though, Hideki's immediate reaction was one of disgust and contempt. He'd met the old Freya before – she'd lain dormant inside Chii for the longest time, protecting and caring for her where he couldn't. And while he admittedly knew very little about her, he knew enough to know she would never have wanted to be turned into something like that.

Judging from Ms. Hibiya's reaction, thought Hideki, it was safe to assume she neither knew nor approved of it, either. What right-thinking parent would? It was bad enough that your daughter died, of heartbreak, no less. But to find her brought back like this…?

It was almost enough to make anyone wish they'd just die of heartbreak themselves.

"Chii?"

Hideki squeezed Chii's hand even tighter. He prayed she'd never experience what had happened to her sister. If those people were to do to her what they'd done to Freya…

There was no question what he'd do. He'd likely not care what happened, even if his life were to be forfeit, so long as he could make them pay. It wouldn't end well, at all.

Either for him, or for them.

Or maybe even all of them.

"What happened to those people, Hideki?" his persocom-slash-girlfriend asked him. "They were very scared, weren't they? They were screaming..."

"Freya seemed very sad, too," Chii mused mournfully. "Was she hurting somewhere, Hideki? Did she do something bad?"

When Hideki didn't reply, she turned to Chitose.

"Miss Manager?" Chii added, using Chitose's formal title, no longer remembering her own past as her daughter. Judging from the way everyone else had reacted at the footage from earlier, she knew that Freya had done [i]something.[/i] But even then she remained mercifully oblivious as to what had been done to her sister, or just what exactly her sister had done to those men in the video.

When no one deigned to enlighten her, Chii went on:

"The look on her face seemed very painful. What would be best to do?"

Both Chitose and Hideki smiled in spite of themselves. There was no denying that she had gotten smarter as she continued to learn new things day by day - though it was probably for the best she remained ignorant, at least for now, as to the ramifications of what she had just seen. But even at times like these, innocent, childlike Chii could be counted on to at least try and cheer everyone else up. And so it was that neither her beloved nor her mother could bring themselves to explain that her sister had become quite possibly the deadliest persocom on the planet, or that Freya had done something that, to say the least, wasn't very nice. He couldn't exactly tell her [i]oh yes, Chii, your sister just went on a killing spree[/i], now could he?

Chitose smiled sadly as she turned to look at her daughter. "We believe in her, Chii. And…"

\------

Freya ran and ran through the residence's darkened hallways, Rei behind her, though she seemed not to notice where she was going. She'd anticipated that they might react badly to the things she'd done, and it did ease the pressure on her to come clean, but there was a difference between lightening the load on her, and the load disappearing entirely.

She was aware of the cognitive dissonance involved, the irony of what she had done. She detested having been turned into a killing machine, yet her very first act upon awakening was to slaughter the people who'd turned her into one. The knowledge of the contradictions between her thoughts and her actions only served to aggravate Freya even more. That she was, in effect, who she hated, intensified the already strong feelings of self-loathing she'd had ever since her flight from Abstergo.

Finally, she got tired of running.

Not tired in the literal sense; generally speaking, persocoms did run out of power, but they didn't get tired exactly. And even then, that was a moot point, as Freya now possessed an infinite power supply thanks to her enhancements. Once they'd reached the central courtyard of the Kokubunji residence – no, estate was more like it – Freya stopped running and turned to face Rei.

All was still as the two faced each other. Not a sound was audible but the occasional cricket, not to mention trickling of water from the fountain located right behind Freya. She wanted badly to remain part of the Mikage household – to remain with Rei. But then, she couldn't blame him if he were to send her away.

Especially not after what just happened.

"Freya…" Rei started. She looked down at the stone path, her heart sinking as she anticipated the words that were sure to come next. _Sorry, you're gonna have to go… Bye, Freya…_

Which made her look back up at the next words to come out of his mouth.

"Are you alright?" the question was, much to her surprise, sincere, although Rei's tone of voice still carried that tone of doubt and uncertainty she supposed was unavoidable given what he'd just learned about her. "It seems you weren't as ready as you thought you'd be, Freya…"

Still she sensed sincerity in him rather than disgust or contempt. Still Freya bowed her head, no longer caring about the pain all too clearly etched on her features. Compared to facing Rei – not to mention her, upstairs – and seeing the disgust in their eyes, she'd rather have been fighting for her life against Abstergo.

At least then it'd be possible that she'd be terminated.

Because right now, she was so close to wishing she'd never woken up.

"You know, it's rude not to look at someone who's talking to you," Rei admonished Freya, a pale attempt at his usual flippant grin on his face. "Lemme just say this to start, though…" he continued as she once again dared to look up at him.

"I've a feeling I know what they did to you, but still, it was disturbing. Scary, even, no point denying it."

Rei's casual tone was clearly forced, and this was where it started shaking, but not once did he take his eyes off of Freya's.

"It does explain quite a bit, though. Remember when we first met? You'd barely say anything."

That was true; she did remember it. It had been right after that attempt Ceres made to access her – something Freya was unlikely to forget anytime soon, considering how she had to use every ounce of willpower to stop her security program shutting down Ceres as a threat.

"And I know you still don't like not being with me if you can help it, but at least you can trust me to be with other people now. Remember before? You were practically hanging off my sleeve!"

Rei's tone caused Freya to snort, but she shifted uncomfortably and flushed faintly at the unnerving accuracy of his words. _I thought you might notice that, Ceres did talk about how smart you were._

Maybe it was because he immediately welcomed her into their home when she sensed some hesitation in both Sayuri and Ceres, or maybe it stemmed from how he was so much like… someone else she had cared for in her past life. Either way, the encyclopedia's worth of information programmed into her told her she'd been heavily dependent on Rei ever since her arrival. More than was healthy, even.

Indeed, for all the power she possessed, not only as a prototype persocom but also, though she was loath to even think it, 'Project Seraph's one and only' – Freya made a mental note to never again think of herself as such – it was ironic to think it was her [i]humanity[/i], something persocoms weren't even supposed to possess at all, that gave rise to a character flaw in her.

What Freya had done at Abstergo had been damning to her, just as surely as she'd ended the lives of the people who did this to her. Coupled with the lingering trauma from her past life, the shadow of her murderous rage made her a broken shell of a girl, and now she'd chosen to latch onto Rei to cope. That she'd never admit it didn't make it any less true, either.

Powerful and dangerous a persocom though she might have become, she would be nothing – less than nothing, even – without Rei Mikage.

And at his next words, Freya lost it. Completely.

"I know it'll be hard. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Maybe even painful, but then it'd be bound to be, given the baggage I'm pretty sure you're trying to get rid of, but you're not leaving." All traces of doubt disappeared from his voice now; on the contrary, his was a tone that would tolerate no dissent.

"You're one of us now, Freya, and I for one never abandon my own."

Without warning, she tackled Rei into a tight embrace, knocking them both over as she sobbed bitterly into his shoulder.

\------

Real life love stories were nothing like those in fiction.

Not that he didn't enjoy them anyway, mused Daniel as he read the latest entry in his favourite series, but he'd long grown past the age – and mindset – where it was perfectly acceptable to believe that happy endings were just given to people on a silver platter. Movies and books pulled the wool over everyone's eyes with all the 'happily ever after' bullshit when there was, in fact, no such thing in reality. Even without more novels like that rag from a few years back about sparkly vampires and bland self-insert skanks written by some sexually frustrated lady, he thought - he'd dove into the bargain bin in his desperation for a good read, only to wind up all but kicking himself for having picked up something better off being tossed in a bonfire - today's literature was disappointingly lacking when it came to truly realistic love stories.

Good thing his disappointment would not be for long.

"Boss, I think you might wanna take a look at this," called one of the operators at Abstergo's Operations Division as he looked up from his workstation. "I think I've finally got a lead on our little angel."

Daniel Cross had barely finished the first page of the chapter he was in when he leapt up from his desk and practically leapt towards the operator in question. In stark contrast to his almost feral excitement at the prospect of an impending hunt back when Vidic had made his request, he'd been beginning to wish he'd never accepted in the first place. Now, however, they finally made a break through – and about time, too.

Unlike any other tracking mission assigned either to him or one of his other subordinates, which encouraged an up-close-and-personal approach, this assignment all but mandated just the opposite. It was to their chagrin that Regenschirm had been so secretive as to exactly what his little science project had been capable of, and that he'd taken that particular secret with him to the grave. From what they did know, and what others had found out the hard way, their target's capabilities would make taking the typical approach a rather suicidal and foolhardy thing to do.

And so it was that when the operator called his attention to what he'd found, he reacted with unnerving haste.

"What? Where?" Daniel demanded.

"Right here, sir – wait a minute," requested the operator as he clicked a few links to a certain persocom BBS. He'd found their lead in one of the threads, but where…?

"Ah, here it is!" he muttered excitedly as he found the thread in question.

He clicked it…

_Sorry, the link that took you to this page seems to be outdated or broken._

Daniel Cross felt his left wrist itch as he fought the sudden urge to plunge his hidden blade into this idiot's skull for wasting his time.


	10. It's Ironic, Isn't It?

"Yuzuki," Minoru spoke after the impact had subsided, "If it's alright, could you tell us what else Freya gave you earlier?"

Not that he suspected Freya. Well-versed in the field of psychology as well as persocom engineering – he'd all but buried himself in such pursuits following the death of his sister – Minoru read no malicious intent in her behavioural cues. Instead, there was only doubt and self-hatred, albeit in admittedly unhealthy amounts. Not too surprising consider what had been done to her, and what she had done in turn, but her recovery was undeniably important right now.

Moreover, she seemed to have become close to Rei in a manner not unlike the closeness between Hideki and Chii, to the point that he had all but become her emotional crutch. As long as he remained safe and sound, he thought, there was little chance of Freya going on a killing spree or anything like that.

At any rate, Freya seemed to trust them enough, if she'd been willing to share something like that. More importantly, though, she might have given Yuzuki more than just her memories. Information on the ones who did that to her, perhaps…?

"Yes, Lord Minoru," answered Yuzuki after several moments, pulling him from his thoughts. "Detailed data files on…" her eyes glazed over for a moment as she reviewed exactly what she'd been given. When she'd finished, she let out a small gasp of shock. "It's something called Project Seraph! Maybe it's got something to do with what they've done to Freya?"

Minoru considered it. Again, he thought, if Freya had given Yuzuki that sort of information, it surely meant she already trusted them – or, more likely, that she was that desperate to get it off her chest. He singled out one among many files that Yuzuki had uploaded, entitled 'ProjectSeraph.docx'. He clicked on it.

Finally, after several tense seconds, he spoke.

"Ms. Hibiya, Mr. Motosuwa…"

"You might wanna take a look at this.

The two of them stood up right away, going over to Minoru's desk to see what it contained.

_September 9, 2029_

_Acquired persocom courtesy of Dr. Hans Regenschirm, Abstergo Industries Cybernetics Division. The persocom in question, designated 'Freya' by the doctor, was created by one Prof. Ichiro Mihara, Japanese robotics expert._

That first entry caused Chitose's brow to furrow. Regenschirm… that man her husband had befriended during one of his business trips abroad, and who he had even trusted to be there to witness Freya's birth. Not only that, the good doctor was also present at Freya's deathbed, and had even [i]comforted[/i] them both when she finally ceased to function.

She felt a sickening sense of betrayal as it dawned on her that the man had his own motives for getting acquainted with them. And when she thought that the one responsible for doing that to her daughter happened to have been a trusted friend of theirs…

Her hands clenched into fists at the idea.

"Please continue, Minoru," Chitose prompted him, her voice shaking even as she forced herself to remain composed. And even then, the lone tear that escaped from the corner of her left eye betrayed just how she felt about what she just read.

_January 18, 2030_

_Repairs on persocom 'Freya' still ongoing, reworked her activation switch to disable itself upon initial activation._

Despite himself, Hideki couldn't help but snort at that line. Of course they'd have had to discover that Freya's activation switch happened to be in a very _precarious_ region. His initial amusement then gave way to a pang of envy for that Rei guy as he realized that, unlike his own predicament with Chii, he and Freya would get to… _consummate…_ their eventual relationship. This was in stark contrast to Chitose, who ignored it as being irrelevant as compared to what else had been done to her daughter, and so read on.

_Her hardware is completely intact, but system restoration proves to be a continuing source of complication. Reformatting her is currently impossible due to non-possession of necessary overrides._

_So they hadn't been able to reformat her,_  thought Chitose, though that hardly surprised her. For that to have been possible they needed the password, and even then, it would have to be either her or her husband to speak it. That they had struggled to restore Freya's systems could probably be explained as a side effect of the emotional distress that eventually caused her to shut down.

They must have succeeded, though, for Freya to have lost her memories of her, or of her sister Elda – _she's Chii now_. But considering Freya still managed to recognize them both, albeit vaguely, it was safe to say that they hadn't been that successful after all.

The next three entries, she saw, detailed the installation of Freya's various enhancements.

She cringed a little when it detailed how they had to take Freya apart, however temporarily though it was, to install them. But once she'd gotten over that immediate reaction, the implications of those enhancements began to set in. Freya as she was now was nigh-indestructible, considering she could regenerate from whatever her armor couldn't nullify.

All in all, her upgrades made her capable of taking on at least a small army by herself. Chitose shuddered to think of exactly what they intended for her daughter to do with that kind of power. But it was the final update that unsettled both Chitose and Hideki the most.

Specifically, one particular line:

_Self-destruct system, installed._

Horrified as she was as Freya's mother, Chitose had to admit that it made perfect sense. Considering the things they would surely have forced her daughter into if they had the chance, she highly doubted they would have been receptive to the idea of her ending up in the hands of someone else.

That being the case, they would likely want to make sure there was no chance of that. She was equally certain some kind of directive was to be installed compelling Freya to self-destruct in such situations, and that they most likely failed on that front.

"Let me ask something," Minoru suddenly spoke, calling the attention of both Chitose and Hideki. "Ms. Hibiya, you programmed both of them to have a human psyche, am I right?"

"Yes, that's right," she replied. "Considering we created them to be daughters to us, we had to make them capable of actually feeling and knowing we loved them."

The child prodigy nodded, satisfied with that explanation. "Well… following my sister's death, I studied both persocom engineering and psychology. And based on what I know, Freya's been exhibiting symptoms of certain psychological disorders, namely PTSD and dependent personality disorder."

"The former I'm not too surprised at, considering what her memories contained. And if nothing else, that she was able to find the courage to share those memories should be a step in overcoming her trauma, but…"

"But?" asked Hideki and Chitose in unison. Immediately after, Hideki glanced sideways at her, then smiled awkwardly, sheepishly, as he realized they'd spoken at the same time.

Before Minoru could answer, however, the door creaked open, and he looked up to see both Rei and Freya re-enter the room. "Oh hi, Freya, Mr. Mikage. Please do have a seat."

"Anyway," he went on as the two resumed their previous seats, "Freya seems to retain some unresolved trauma from her past life. I'm sure she doesn't yet remember the events themselves, but whatever it is, it seems to be influencing her current demeanor towards her new companion."

Minoru looked meaningfully at Rei, who nodded in understanding. Freya too seemed to realize what he meant, as she bowed her head in apparent contemplation at his words. He was certainly no mere child if he saw exactly what she had admitted to herself just moments ago.

The next words out of his mouth only confirmed it.

"I'm not sure she can be blamed for it, but – and, Mr. Mikage," he made eye contact with Rei as he said this, "This concerns you, so listen carefully. Freya here seems to be dealing with dependent personality disorder," this he said as he shifted his gaze to the persocom in question, whose refusal to meet his eyes he took as a sign of an accurate guess on his part.

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Minoru smiled sadly as he gazed even more intently at Freya. "Like it or not, you've probably become the most powerful persocom in the world, Freya, yet you tend to feel powerless and weak without someone else to hold your hand. Make no mistake, though – if your decision to allow Yuzuki to help bear your burden tells me anything, it's that you're in the process of recovering."

Here his smile became one of encouragement, and this inspired some hope in both Rei and Freya as they realized he was right. "Just keep at it, alright? I'm not nearly as good at psychologizing people as I am with persocoms, and I could be wrong, but I'd like to think my observations were fairly accurate."

"And don't worry," he added as Freya began to open her mouth. "You can be sure Yuzuki and I will do all we can to help the both of you. Freya can probably fight off anyone who even tries to take her back, but it'll be so much better for us all if they aren't able to find her at all."

Around an hour later, when their guests had all gone…

"You're hiding something, aren't you, Yuzuki?"

It was said in an offhanded rather than accusatory tone of voice, but she still visibly flinched at the remark – a sign Minoru took to mean he was right. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not angry or anything. It's your right to keep some things to yourself, after all. So, are you?"

She hesitated, but also knew it was pointless to lie to someone who could see through her clear as day – not that she felt like it, as she could never bring herself to lie to him. "Y-yes, Lord Minoru."

"Care to tell me about it, Yuzuki? And do drop the 'Lord' thing, if you can."

Yuzuki thought back to what had happened earlier, when Freya gave her not only her memories, but all that background information regarding not only Project Seraph, but also Abstergo Industries itself. And when she relayed all those data files to him, she kept back a certain few – ones she wasn't so sure he'd be pleased about if he knew.

But more had taken place earlier than just mere data transfer. What most people didn't know, or often took for granted, was that persocoms could hold private conversations while interfacing with each other with no chance of being overheard or intercepted.

_"He's important to you, isn't he, Yuzuki?"_

_Yuzuki hesitated, unsure what to say. Just like her sister, it seemed Freya was much keener than she appeared to be. After thinking on it for a while, she decided to just be truthful about it._

_"Yes, Miss Freya. Lord Minoru created me, after all –"_

_"No, you misunderstand. By 'important', I meant in a manner similar to how that young man seems to regard… my sister."_

_"I…"_

_Try as she might, Yuzuki couldn't get the words out; indeed, Freya's intuition, or what passed for it among persocoms, was so accurate it wasn't even funny. Luckily, she decided to let the matter drop._

_"I was right, then, wasn't I?"_

_Just then, Yuzuki felt a strange sensation as she just received more data from Freya; this time, it was compressed and encrypted such that she had no way of analyzing it or seeing what it was._

_"Worry not, what I just gave you isn't harmful to either of you in any way. But, Yuzuki?"_

_"Yes, Miss Freya?"_

_"If at all possible, I sincerely hope you never find need for my… gift."_

_"Wait, what –"_

_But Freya had already severed the connection, leaving Yuzuki with a mounting feeling of trepidation at those last words._

Slowly, she shook her head.

"I can't, L – Minoru. Even I don't know what it is yet. I'm sorry."


	11. You're Getting There

The next day came.

Rei did wake up with a start when the alarm went off, but he left it alone for at least half an hour more, long after he was sure his sister had left the house. And even then, rather than dutifully sitting up in bed and killing it, he elected to skip straight to the second step before lying back down and placing a pillow over his eyes.

He was exhausted, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. As such, he thought, it shouldn't have been too surprising that going to school was the last thing on his mind today.

And to hell with what his sister, Ceres, Shana or anyone else thought of it.

They wouldn't be able to blame him if only they knew. After all, he'd only just found out that his sister's ridiculous speculations with respect to his persocom's origin not only turned out to not be so ridiculous after all, but were in fact more or less accurate – barring Freya having come from some generic nebulous evil organization, rather than the military or something like it.

But then, thought Rei, that was just it: _if only they knew._

And he did know that keeping her secret would exact a price of its own – one he was willing to pay, no doubt, but one that would take its inevitable toll nonetheless. He'd told Freya as much last night, and Minoru had been kind enough to spell out key points for him before they left. But even then, his foreknowledge of and willingness to deal with the consequences did little to make it any easier on him.

Freya's dark secret lay on his shoulders like a lead weight. And yet, serious as it was, it was something about her that he found darkly amusing.

Or, he would have, if it didn't also happen to be the biggest dramatic irony he'd ever known to happen to someone. Because for all that Minoru had called her the most powerful and dangerous persocom in the world, she still needed his protection, just not from her former owners.

 _Hell,_  thought Rei darkly, _knowing her, they'd probably be dead by the time I'd come up with an idea as to what to do with them._

He remembered what he had seen Freya do to the ones responsible for their current state, and thought that, in their last moments, they probably longed to kick themselves for having, in effect, dug their own graves. Either way, to him it meant that no enemy they knew of could possibly harm her.

Rather, what Freya needed him to protect her from, was something that lay inside her. Powerful as she was, all the power she had at her disposal could do little to help her fight something that was eating her alive from the inside. For all the ease with which she took the lives of those men in that deadly dance of hers, her hidden blades could do naught to vanquish her inner demons.

And regardless of how many lifetimes' worth of fighting experience she had programmed into her, it all did her no good trying to fight the ghosts that had haunted her since her previous life.

The irony of the situation was not lost on Rei.

Indeed, amusing as it was in its tragedy, it nevertheless served to underscore the truth that, artificial being though she may be, Freya was all too… [i]human[/i]. And ironically enough, it was her surprising level of humanity that could hurt her where bullets and blades could not.

_"Konna ni tsumetai tobari no fukaku de_   
_anata wa hitori de nemutteru_   
_inori no utagoe sabishii nohara wo_   
_chiisa na hikari ga terashiteta…"_

The sound of a girl singing drifted into the room through the open door – which, incidentally, Rei only just noticed as he turned to face that side. It wasn't bad, either; on the contrary, it almost sounded too good for him to not be imagining it. Like the singer was either highly trained, or something had been done to make her able to sing like an angel.

He sat up, slowly, as he listened to whoever it was who was singing:

_"Anata no yume wo miteta_   
_kodomo no you ni waratteta_   
_natsukashiku mada tooku_   
_sore wa mirai no yakusoku…"_

And it was just then, too, when he noticed Freya was nowhere to be found.

Rei's sloth left him as he practically leapt out of the bed and followed the sound of that voice. It seemed to be coming from further down the hall, from Oyuki's room, and was rather … familiar, now that he actually paid attention to it. As he made the approach to where his niece was supposed to be, the voice grew gradually louder.

_"Itsuka midori no asa ni_   
_itsuka tadoritsukeru to_   
_fuyugareta kono sora wo_   
_shinjiteiru kara_   
_Fields of hope…"_

He opened the door.

_…Should I even be surprised?_

Freya was there, seated in a chair, rocking Oyuki back and forth as she sang the last lines of her song. She looked up at the sound of the door opening and, laying the now-snoozing baby down in her crib, smiled sweetly at who it turned out to be.

"Sorry if I worried you, Rei," her smile shifting into an apologetic one, "She wouldn't stop crying after your sister went to see her on her way out."

"Oh, and Ceres went out to buy more baby supplies, so I'm stuck here for a while."

_Which means I now have a ready-made excuse to stay here in the meantime. Awesome._

"Nice song, Freya," Rei complimented her, though her focus was directed not at his words, but rather the faint flush creeping up his cheeks. "Composed it yourself?"

Slowly, hesitantly, Freya shook her head. In truth, that song was… another one of her memories. Perhaps it was due to her pouring her heart out in front of their new friends – her mother and sister being among them – but soon after Rei had gone to bed, she started having random flashes of her previous life.

And in the memory from which she got that song, she could clearly see that it was her mother who was singing; even her voice as she'd heard it again, last night, was perfectly identical to what she'd remembered. Freya related this to Rei, who gave a faint, but clear smile of encouragement in response.

"I see. I figured getting all that off your chest would be helpful," he embraced her briefly as he said this, before flashing her a wide grin along with a thumbs-up.

Then the grin faded and his face took on a more serious look, akin to that of Minoru as he gave her his 'diagnosis'.

"Seriously, though. From what we've been taught in school, our mind blocks out bad memories and traumatic experiences until we're ready to deal with them again. And if you're starting to remember more… It's a sign that you're getting there, isn't it?"

This time, it was Freya who pounced Rei into a hug, nearly knocking him over in a manner not unlike last night. Oyuki, who had been watching them from her crib, started laughing and reached out in their direction with both arms as if wanting to be picked up.

At the sight, he let go of Freya, and instead turned his attention to the child in front of him.

"C'mon, you," Rei addressed his niece in what he called his 'cool uncle' voice, "We can't have you spending all your time with women, now can we?" This he said with a wicked smirk on his face as he glanced sideways toward Freya. "Don't you know it's bad for you?"

"Hey!"

Oyuki's laughter could be heard even as her uncle and his persocom engaged in a bit of playful bickering. Even that didn't last long, though, as the sudden growling in his stomach made Rei fall silent.

"Oh, yeah… Freya, is there anything to eat? After all that happened last night, I'm starving."

\------

"Oh, would you look at this, Dita dear?" Zima's voice projected amusement and contentment as the two of them again eavesdropped on the scene from the window of the baby's room. "Nothing quite like some lighthearted family bonding after an exhausting debriefing session the night before, now is there?"

"Be serious already, _won't_  you, Zima?" Dita asked him sweetly, though the clenched fist she shook in front of him told him he was one witty remark away from being smacked upside the head. "We're _persocoms,_  for chrissakes! There was nothing to debrief in the first place!"

It was a special privilege he reserved for her; she was assigned to Zima as his guardian and protector, but to her mind, that designation didn't forbid her to keep him in line, or to knock some sense into him when he was being an idiot. He shook his head at the irony of it. Dita was cute like that, insisting persocoms didn't have feelings when she alone was already enough evidence to the contrary.

Zima and Dita were officially government persocoms, and would thus be given the occasional mission or assignment to undertake. Beyond that, though, they were given complete autonomy and freedom of action. As the National Databank and the unofficial 'King of all Persocoms', Zima was allowed to do whatever he liked, as long as it wasn't morally or legally wrong.

And no matter what happened, Dita would always be with him, protecting him from harm and keeping him from getting into too much trouble.

Despite this, though, there'd been times he'd done illegal things that were otherwise the right thing to do. In fact, just yesterday he hacked into a BBS to delete this boy's forum post. Even more importantly, he once stopped Dita from hacking into Freya's twin sister before. She wasn't a bad person – far from it, he mused – but again, her ingrained need to protect him could at times get the better of her.

"Well, whatever, love," Zima answered. At the moment, the look on his face uncannily resembled both a sincere smile, and a cheeky grin that could have given the Cheshire Cat a run for its money. "I for one think she deserves it, considering the crap she's had to deal with."

He pointedly ignored Dita, who blushed violently as the vehement objection she had ready got stuck in her throat. Just as she considered it her right – indeed, her moral duty – to keep him in line, he revelled in the fact that he was the only one who could get away with calling her something like that without receiving anything more than ineffectual and unconvincing threats to show for it. It was something he milked for all it was worth, much to his amusement and her consternation.

"Oh, yeah, Zima?" Dita spoke suddenly, her tone of voice changing in a way that told him they were done bickering. "You asked me to dig up info on Abstergo, right? It seems they've been searching for her, but so far they've been luckless."

"And from what I was able to gather while tracking their online activity," she added, "They almost got a lead poking around on that persocom BBS, but then the post in question got deleted."

Their eyes met; both of them cracked into devious smirks as they thought back on how Zima had, figuratively speaking, thrown a wrench in their attempts at repossessing their rogue persocom. "Tough shit, huh?"

Zima let out a soft, yet undeniably lively bark of laughter, only to nearly fall off the roof of the neighbors' house as Dita joined him too – a move he noted as being quite uncharacteristic of her. It gratified him to see that, little by little, she too seemed to be abandoning her denial of persocoms not having emotions.

She then cleared her throat, causing Zima to fall silent as light momentarily streaked across her eyes.

"Another update, Zima."

"Oh?"

"Abstergo's begun a new project… something called 'Project Nephilim'…"

That caught his attention, once he'd gotten over Abstergo's apparent love of naming its projects after creatures of myth and legend. From what information he could access online, the Nephilim were said to be fallen angels – monstrously beautiful, yet monstrous all the same. This was in stark contrast to the Seraphim – from which 'Project Seraph' apparently got its name – said to be the highest choir of angels.

A new feeling of dread sank in on both Zima and Dita as they realized the significance of that connection.

"Oh _fuck_."

\------

Though Zima and Dita didn't know it, that sentiment was echoed by Daniel Cross as he learned, through Dr. Warren Vidic, of Abstergo's latest project.

As it was, they already lost more than a few good men to the monster Regenschirm had created. Granted, at least half of them arguably deserved it, if only for the idea of having created such a thing in the first place. He thought back to the immediate aftermath of the massacre, when Vidic had called him to Regenschirm's lab to give him this current assignment. The problem with 'Project Seraph', as he saw it, wasn't that they failed.

On the contrary, they succeeded – too well.

They'd managed to create the deadliest persocom in the world, yet had had the simply awful luck of creating it out of one that happened to have free will and emotions of its own. She might have been his prey, but despite his reputation as a ruthless operative, Daniel wasn't entirely unsympathetic to her. Indeed, having once been subject to experimentation by amoral scientists himself, he didn't blame her one bit for flipping out the way she did. If anything, put in the same position, he might very well have prolonged their agony just to make sure they realized exactly what they had done.

He shook his head at that train of thought. _You're supposed to destroy her, dumbass, not feel sorry for her._

It was for the second half of the list of casualties – those who had just been doing their jobs, as opposed to those unbelievably idiotic men who thought messing around with a sentient machine would go over well – that Daniel hardened his resolve to put his prey down. They were not just underlings, mere foot soldiers in the hierarchy of the Operations Division, but were in fact _his_ direct subordinates.

 _His_ men, killed in what was basically a temper tantrum gone completely out of control.

And now Abstergo wanted to risk a repeat of that?

_Those idiots!_

"Alright, boys and girls," he called, looking around the whole of the Operations Division's unofficial headquarters, "I've an announcement to make." All eyes were on him as he walked down the steps to the platform below, in front of the rows of operators working on computer terminals. Their workstations, however, lay momentarily forgotten as their leader was about to say something undoubtedly important.

"No doubt you've all heard of this so-called Project Nephilim. And I don't know about you, but if you ask me, I for the life of me cannot understand just what the hell Vidic and friends are playing at. I mean – I know, I know," he raised his hands defensively in awareness of his reputation among them. "I probably shouldn't even be talking, but… we all know that some of those casualties were our own, right?"

His subordinates had worked themselves up in an uproar at that. He let that reminder, of the comrades they lost, set in, before he went on.

"Now the good news is this: if we successfully clean up after Regenschirm's mess, there's a good chance we can get them to just get their collective heads out of their asses and abandon their stupid science project. My word is that whatever's gonna be the result of that project, it'll be able to take on and even defeat the little angel all by itself, and we all saw what she could do."

"But if we get the job done already," his eyes gleamed as he met the eyes of each and every one of his subordinates, "We can expose their latest harebrained scheme for the irrelevant waste of time and money it actually is. Hell, we shouldn't even be playing with those dolls in the first place!"

Daniel only dimly registered the applause that greeted his words as he stalked his way back to his desk at the top row. If he was to deliver on his promise, he'd have to get started on tracking his prey right away.

But first, he felt the need to send an email to Vidic. The subject title was 'Project Nephilim', the three-word message contained therein indicative of exactly what he thought of it:

 _What the_  hell?

Daniel Cross knew perfectly well how rude it was, but he saw no other way of adequately conveying his opinion on this latest… development.

\------

**A/N: The song is 'Fields of Hope', by Rie Tanaka, aka Chii/Freya's seiyuu. ^^**


	12. Denial and Rationalization

_…What did I get myself into this time?_

It had been his idea to go out with Freya – informing both Ceres and his sister beforehand – and take Oyuki with them.

Yet even so, the word most applicable with respect to how Rei Mikage felt at that moment, was _awkward_.

_A date with your own persocom? Are you serious, bro?_

No, he was not, in fact, one of those bigots who denounced 'coms as mere automatons. Freya and Ceres would have attested to that, vigorously and insistently. And besides, following a certain incident from around a year ago, the concept of sentient persocoms truly capable of emotional responses was not unheard of. Hell, if Freya's struggle to confront her dark and troubled past wasn't enough proof of the sapience all persocoms now possessed, he didn't know what was.

But even then, part of Rei still cared about the notions of social acceptance, and of adherence to cultural norms. It was this side of him, he contemplated as he directed Oyuki in her stroller, which surfaced as he endured aside glances and stares from people they passed by on the street. Really; he, Freya and Oyuki were supposed to go to some coffee shop – Tirol, if he recalled correctly – just for a little change of scenery, but to be gawked at along the way...

Even though he and Freya held their heads high and ignored them, it got old, not to mention annoying, rather quickly.

He even heard a few of them muttering, no doubt comparing him with that guy from a few years back who'd gone so far as to marry a persocom. Even back then, Rei failed to see what was so unacceptable about that – especially after seeing the guy on the news again, following his wife's 'death' – but now that he had two persocoms who he respectively saw as an older sister figure and…

_…Say what? Seriously?_

"Chii!"

The exclamation, which came from seemingly out of nowhere, startled all three of them. Equally sudden was Freya's body double – her sister – leaping from the door of some building and embracing her tightly.

"Chii missed you, Freya! Welcome to Tirol!"

Sure enough, there it was, written in katakana, on a sign above the door: _Tirol Bakery and Coffee Shop_. Rei allowed himself a slight smile as he was welcomed inside by Chii, who joyfully clasped her sister's hand as she led them to a vacant table.

Once seated, he took in the sights; the place really _was_ as beautiful as its pastries were delicious. He'd never gone here before, but Sayuri used to take home chocolate cake for him every so often, back when she and her now-husband had still been dating and their parents were still alive. And now, he thought as Freya returned, having ordered two slices of butter cake, it was fitting that he brought his niece here for the same treat.

"Oh, hello there! I see you've already met Chii."

Not long after both uncle and niece – being fed by Freya – finished eating their cake, the door opened again. It was a man in a white chef's outfit, and judging from the words out of his mouth, he owned the place. Chii, who had been manning the counter, ran up to the new arrival and gestured towards him and Freya.

"Welcome back, Manager! Look, it's Freya! Chii's sister! And her boyfriend, too!"

 _Yeah, I kinda noticed,_  thought Rei, the corners of his mouth twitching as he fought to keep from laughing. Whereas Freya was bitter, moody and worldly, her sister seemed to be innocent, naïve and adorable – more adorable than Freya, anyway. He wondered whether Freya had been the same way before her life got worse.

 _Wait a minute,_ he did a double-take as he recalled the second thing Chii had said. _SAY WHAT!?_

He sneaked a glance at Freya, who appeared to be troubled with her head bowed down.

"Hey there," said the manager as he took the third seat at Rei and Freya's table, "Did you enjoy the cake? Motosuwa did mention something about Chii's sister last time, come to think of it. The two of you seem pretty close," this he added as he observed Freya, who was now playing with Oyuki. Their eyes briefly met as the persocom gave him a small smile.

"Right on both counts," Rei replied with a grin on his face. "I've loved your stuff since I was a kid, and yeah, Freya and I have grown pretty close, I suppose."

Exactly how close they were, though, Rei wasn't sure just yet. It wasn't that the idea of having a persocom for a girlfriend repelled him – though it _was_  rather… unorthodox, no point denying it. The way he saw it, though, the one difference where he and Freya were concerned was that he was flesh and blood, while she was circuits and servos.

It was just that, human or persocom, he'd never had a girlfriend. He once carried a torch for someone, who sadly didn't feel the same way, but that was it. More importantly, other pursuits, such as schoolwork and hardcore gaming, had kept Rei too busy to pursue and maintain something like that.

"Manager," Chii piped up suddenly, "Can Chii go out with Freya for a while? Chii missed her sister very much, please?"

The manager didn't even hesitate. "Sure thing, Chii. Just don't be out too long, and be careful!"

He hadn't even finished, though, as Chii had already led Freya out the store to look around at the nearby stalls. Still with a slight smile on his face, he turned back to face Rei and introduced himself.

"I'm Hiroyasu Ueda," he said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Rei Mikage," Rei returned the favour. "And, err… no, Freya isn't my girlfriend. I had one, once before, but..."

It happened 4 years ago, when Rei was still in high school, but still he couldn't bring himself to talk about it. He'd poured his heart out to some chick… only to get turned down for [i]another girl[/i], with whom she subsequently eloped. Needless to say, it left quite an impact on his worldview.

Besides, where did Chii get that notion, anyway?

"Not that there's anything wrong with something like that, though," he hastily added.

Despite having to refute Chii's earlier claim of a relationship between him and Freya, he still somehow felt a need to stress a certain point. While the idea of being involved with a persocom had never occurred to him, that didn't mean he found it abhorrent, either.

_Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Just keep telling yourself that._

There it was again, that snide voice in his head. Irritated, Rei quashed it with a retort of his own:

_Make sense, will you?_

_Denial and rationalization are among the most common defense mechanisms, you know –_

"I see," Ueda nodded, inadvertently cutting Rei off from arguing with himself. "Y'know, I've got a story for you. You remember that story in the news, about a guy who married a persocom?"

Rei nodded. Of course he remembered that one; it came up as a topic for conversation during dinner that night, and was something his peers had wasted no time laughing about and ridiculing the next day. "Yeah…?"

"It was my story," Ueda said matter-of-factly, in the tone he most likely used when instructing Chii about work. "I'd bought her to do math, which I was terrible at, and, well… things just happened from there."

Rei listened intently as Ueda told him his story. He couldn't help but feel bad for the man when he related the part about his persocom-wife gradually losing her memories to a broken hard drive. And when she got hit by a truck after pushing him out of the way…

_…Damn._

It was like Alzheimer's, he thought; something in the brain goes, taking the patient's memories with it. Relatives of such patients would often experience their loved one losing all recognition of them even as they ministered to their needs. Needless to say, Alzheimer's disease took its toll on everyone involved, and was just as painful to the loved ones as it was to the patient himself.

He prayed he and Freya would never experience something like that.

 _Would you look at that,_  again chimed the snide voice. _I thought Freya wasn't your girlfriend?_

He ignored this, but still the voice continued to mock him. Rei felt a fresh twinge of annoyance as the points it made were rather accurate – uncomfortably so, in fact.

_Honestly, the sooner you quit denying it, the easier it'll all be._

"How about you, Mikage?" Ueda again recalled him to his surroundings. "How are you and Freya?"

"Well…" Rei hesitated, unsure of exactly what to say or how to say it. He wasn't opposed to the idea of them being in a relationship, but –

"She's very… broken up right now," he began. "She'd been kidnapped from her mother, and the people who kidnapped her… did things to her."

Ueda gave a start at that. Rei supposed he was under the impression that Freya had been raped or something – which wasn't too far from the truth, actually. In taking what was a normal girl and turning her into some kind of murderous doll, they pretty much forced themselves upon her in a way that was just as bad, if not even worse than 'forced entry', so to speak.

All was silent for a moment. And except for Oyuki wriggling in her stroller, all was still. He coughed slightly, as if to clear his throat, before continuing:

"At the moment she's very vulnerable, and I'd rather not take advantage of that. If I did I wouldn't be much better than the ones who violated her, now would I?"

As Ueda contemplated all this, Rei let out a sigh. He'd left out certain details, but then, he couldn't be blamed for that. Freya had trusted him implicitly with her secrets, and they really weren't his to give away.

And besides, he wasn't the type to betray other people's trust, least of all hers.

\------

Chii and Freya were at a nearby bookstore, looking around in the children's section. More appropriately, it was Chii who was looking, while Freya just stood there, waiting for her sister to finish. She watched as Chii perused a picture book with what looked like a pink… thing, with bunny ears, on the cover. [i]The City With No People[/i], it was called.

Then, out of nowhere, _that_  question.

"Is Rei the person just for Freya?" Chii asked her sister.

Freya froze. She couldn't have heard what she thought she just heard. Could she?

"...Come again, Chii? I'm not sure I heard you right."

"Is Rei the person just for Freya?" her sister and doppelganger repeated, causing her to flinch as though expecting a slap to come her way.

"What do you mean?" Freya's tone of voice was one of mock cluelessness. She knew all too well the folly of judging a book by its cover, but she still couldn't quite believe that Chii was _that_ observant. Or had she merely been too obvious?

Regardless, the next thing Chii said no longer left any room for doubt.

"Does Freya love Rei, like Chii loves Hideki?"

Her voice sounded faintly impatient now, a dead giveaway that Freya's auditory faculties had not, in fact, deceived her. Regardless of how it had happened, the fact remained that Chii saw right through her. Slowly, Freya nodded.

"I'm broken, yet he makes me whole again. I'm a bad person, but he cares for me anyway. The idea of him being taken away makes my heart ache."

"I want to protect him, just as he protects me. I don't ever want to go away, or for him to disappear."

"Chii," she murmured as she wrapped her arms around her older sister, who reciprocated. When Chii decided she felt that way for Hideki, it was Freya – not this Freya, but Freya nonetheless – who cared for her and supported her. When someone had kidnapped her and attempted to violate her, her older sister was once again there to protect her.

And now that Freya had also found the person just for her, it was her turn to give Freya the same support and care, and she would. Chii squeezed her sister more tightly, hoping to convey these sentiments through that hug. _Freya is Chii's sister. Chii loves her sister. Chii wants her sister to be happy._

"What about you, Chii?" it was Freya's turn to speak. "You love… Hideki, don't you? Hideki is… the one who is just for you?"

It was a rhetorical question, given that Chii said it first. Regardless, Freya made the decision right there. Her eyes glazed over as she interfaced with her sister, sending her… a gift of sorts.

"Huh?" Chii looked up as she registered a hunk of data integrating itself into her system. "What did Freya give Chii just now?"

But Freya only raised her eyebrows, and said, "C'mon, Chii, we'd better go back now."

And so they did. For a moment, Freya wondered whether she did the right thing, but her doubt was fleeting. She would never give her friends, much less her own sister, something she knew perfectly well would hurt them.

Just as with Yuzuki, though, Freya hoped her gift was something Chii would never need.


	13. The Icky Jobs

She could sense, somehow, that both of them had changed.

Such were the thoughts of Ceres as she was out window shopping in the commercial district. In truth, she'd already finished her errands at the grocery, and was in fact holding shopping bags full of diapers, powdered milk and ice cream – for Rei as well as Oyuki. And so it was that when Freya contacted her, informing her to meet up with them at some coffee shop, she happened to be picking clothes inside a clothing store.

She'd struck up quite the rapport with that girl ever since her arrival at the Mikage household, ever since Rei took her in. They bonded over the mutual chores they performed while waiting for the siblings to give them orders. When Rei was at home, Freya would assist her in the kitchen, aside from assisting her in caring for Oyuki – as was the case today.

Ceres chuckled to herself at the thought of Rei and Freya on their 'date', which it may as well have been considering how close the two had gotten. And together with Oyuki, they might have passed for a young couple with their firstborn.

 _She_ has _been opening up more, hasn't she?_

Even Ceres could see that. When they'd first met, Freya was quiet and withdrawn at best, and would often lapse into zombie-like behaviour at her worst. Even today she still had the occasional bout of melancholia and listlessness, but it seemed on the whole that spending so much time with Rei had been good for the blond persocom.

And for that matter, observed Ceres, Rei too had changed, subtly but unmistakably. For one thing, he seemed to have learned to reach out to others just a little bit more.

"Miss, you're next."

Ceres shelved these thoughts momentarily as she paid for a black dress she'd chosen for herself. It was fine – Sayuri often gave her allowance and all, the size of was closer to what would be a salaryman's monthly pay. Somewhat unusual, but then she _was_ paid a lot by her company – and Ceres _did_ take on a responsibility that should have been mostly hers.

It was funny, now that Ceres thought of it. She herself had changed a lot since she had all but become part of their little family, and it wasn't just because she'd been there long before Freya.

She felt something long, hard and rather heavy in the hidden pocket in the inside of her apron – the one thing from her past life that she had kept all this time.

_For one, I don't have to do those icky jobs anymore._

Before Ceres became Oyuki's nanny and Rei's… caretaker – she suppressed a smirk at this – she served as someone's personal assistant, during which the jobs she would be made to do were things persocoms weren't usually asked to. She hadn't complained then, not yet having the capacity to feel or express emotions and sentiments such as distaste. But now, she was glad to have left that life behind her, with all the icky jobs she used to do on a regular basis.

But even then, there were some things one didn't forget.

And if something were to happen to the ones closest to her, she reflected as she made her way along the metro's crowded streets, Ceres was quite ready and willing to momentarily revert to her old self.

A scream in the distance jolted her out of that train of thought.

 _Well, this should be interesting,_ she thought, again feeling that something she'd buried in her apron.

Ceres resolved to follow the sound.

There was nothing to it, really. If Rei and Freya – and especially Oyuki – were anywhere near there, who knows what could happen to them.

\------

Anything that can go wrong will.

And if any single chain of events can go wrong, it can be expected to go wrong in the worst possible way.

This was a truth that Nanako Mizunuma had never been a stranger to.

Even as a child, her older sister would always hurt her, supposedly because it was she, Nanako, who happened to be their mother's favourite. Eventually she was removed from that environment and was lucky enough to be informally adopted. But in spite of the tender loving care her new foster family showered upon her, the damage had already been done; her tumultuous childhood had succeeded at robbing her of her innocence at a very young age.

To that end, Nanako had been very careful not to be out at night by herself, and to refrain from going to dark and deserted areas such as this. She made sure to always let her foster parents know where she was going, and by what time to expect her home. When going out, she made sure to have a companion as much as possible. Somewhere along the line, she might have deluded herself into thinking that she could never end up the victim of some heinous crime.

Yet now, fate seemed ready to teach her a painful lesson.

Of all the people walking along the metro's commercial district, it had to be she who ended up getting snatched and dragged into a dark alleyway and then tossed none too gently into a concrete wall. There were many evil people in the world, but she was the one whose clothes were violently ripped off by this… animal, who now leered at her hungrily with a crazed glint in his shadowed eyes.

And of the many criminals who well and truly deserved to die gruesome deaths, it was _Nanako_  who would meet her end stripped of all dignity.

And if Nanako was already crying in desperation and wetting herself in terror, the deranged grin he was now giving her made her wish for a bullet in the brain.

"Don't struggle so much," he told her as he smoothened his polo shirt, the mockingly reassuring note in his voice serving to terrify her even more, "This'll be over quickly."

Nanako's heart was thrashing against her ribcage now, as if trying to get free and run away, but she had ceased to scream or to struggle. She was beyond hysteria now, as if her mind had mercifully detached her from the gravity of her current circumstances. And so it was that she retained only the vaguest sense that something was about to happen to her.

But then –

"You got that right."

\------

Zima and Dita traversed the rooftops on the way to their next assignment, one involving a hacked database and stolen persocom blueprints. And as was their custom, the pair differed with respect to the manner in which they'd received and accepted this mission. Dita had been glad of it, but Zima took it with a faint sense of disappointment; he'd been watching Freya and him, and was silently rooting for them to formalize their relationship.

Just then, though, something caught Dita's attention.

"Hey Zima, you'd better look at this."

He walked over to Dita, who was standing at the edge of the roof of one of the many office buildings in the area. From what he could see in the alleyway below, a small drama was about to unfold with them as witnesses. There was a girl there, stripped to her underclothes while what looked like a school uniform lay forgotten beside her, while the man who stood over her appeared ready for the [i]action[/i] that was sure to come.

"Don't we know her, Zima?"

"What, that girl?" Zima laughed, despite knowing that such a reaction on his part was rather inappropriate at a time like this. "She's pretty, I'll give you that, but –"

He stifled his smirk as something small and hard collided with the back of his head at that comment of his. Dita had finally had enough and hit him, though whether out of exasperation at his attitude, or jealousy at calling the poor girl 'pretty', he couldn't tell. She pointed away from the scene, at a third figure who was advancing on the girl and her tormentor with a gun in their hand.

"That's a persocom…" Zima said. "What about her?"

Even as he said that, though, his recognition of the persocom in question increased the more he watched her. The blue hair, the outfit… surely it couldn't be -?

"Doesn't she belong to that boy's sister?" Dita pointed out, confirming Zima's suspicion. Now that he really looked at her, Zima saw that she was right. It was his sister's persocom – Ceres, if he recalled correctly. He remembered watching her try, and fail, to analyze Freya, though the mere fact she hadn't been shut down was testament to how powerful a persocom she was.

But what was she doing with that gun, and more importantly, how'd she get hold of it in the first place?

 _Well,_ thought Zima grimly, _looks like we're about to find out._

\------

The would-be predator spun around.

Nanako, who had closed her eyes in resignation to her fate, looked up at the new arrival. Standing frozen at the far end of the alley was a female figure dressed in a fancy maid's outfit, whose unnatural blue hair and pointy ears betrayed her true nature as a persocom. Though it was too far to tell exactly what her expression was, there was no mistaking the cold fury emanating from her.

Nor was it possible to miss the sense of danger she all but radiated.

Terrified as she was, even Nanako could tell that, appearance aside, this was not just any persocom. No mere commercial model would be capable of giving off such a fearsome aura, enough to scare the pants off of a hardened criminal like this one. And of course, she thought, it was unlikely that an ordinary persocom would know what a gun was, let alone how to use one.

Least of all something as large as that _thing_  this persocom had aimed at the criminal's heart.

Something that big was surely unwieldy, and would probably be rendered impractical by the massive recoil among other issues. Considering how even the most seasoned of soldiers would have had trouble wielding it, it looked ridiculous in the hands of this persocom. It wasn't so much a handgun as it was a hand _cannon._

That said, something in the persocom's carriage bespoke experience and skill with the improbable weapon.

"Step away from her, why don't you?" her tone was polite and even pleasant, though this did nothing to disguise the hostility that was all but dripping from her voice. "I'd rather not have to use this thing, so please don't make me."

As if to prove her point, she disengaged the safety, emitting an audible clicking noise as she did so. It was the animal's turn now to crap himself in fear.

However, the way he talked back just five seconds later made Nanako wonder if he had any sense at all when it came to self-preservation.

"Who d'you think you're kidding, you stupid 'com?" he sneered, ignoring his own cold sweat as he stared down the barrel of a gun far too large for the petite persocom pointing it at him. "You don't scare me! You probably don't even know how to use that thing!"

He lunged at the persocom in a blind rage.

Either he was drunk, thought Nanako as her terror began to subside, or just plain retarded. And apparently, the persocom thought so too, if the way she shook her head in exasperation was anything to go by. She _did_ try to warn him, after all. She _did_  give him a chance to back off and walk away without an unwanted hole in his head.

And if he thought it was an idle threat, thought Ceres, it was his call.

She didn't even hesitate as she aimed a few inches higher and pulled the trigger. The gunshot reverberated like cannon fire in the dark and narrow alleyway, leaving a mass of bone, blood and brain where the would-be rapist's head used to be. The girl he had been about to assault cringed as some of the bloody bits and chunks flew in her direction, and had gotten out of the way as the corpse was about to land on her.

After a moment of silence, during which she stowed her still-smoking gun back in her apron, it was Ceres who spoke first.

"Are you alright?"

She was taken aback, though not entirely surprised, as the girl held onto her for dear life, screaming and wailing. Once she had gotten over the initial shock, though, she returned the embrace, comforting the girl who was clearly traumatized by her ordeal.

Much later, as she half-carried, half-dragged the girl with her back to the Mikage residence, Ceres realized that the manner in which she had embraced the girl was not unlike the way she'd seen Rei hold Freya.

Today had been one hell of a day.

\------

An hour had passed, and still Ceres hadn't arrived.

It wasn't like her, thought Rei; as a persocom, Ceres was not one to be late for anything. If anything, whenever he or Sayuri made a request of her, she would attend to it right away and finish equally quickly. So when they'd been sitting in Tirol for an hour and Ceres was still nowhere to be found, he began to worry.

"Hey Freya, would you try calling Ceres again?"

Freya nodded, looking down at the baby in her arms before setting her back down in her stroller. Her eyes glazed over as she sought out Ceres' signal. Rei waited with bated breath, worried as to what could possibly have happened to her.

A minute later, though, Freya was still unresponsive – something that hadn't ever happened in this situation before. His worry mounted as he continued to wait for a reply he was beginning to fear would never come. Could Ceres possibly have been…?

"Rei."

The weary note in Freya's voice reminded him of the time he first asked her about her previous owners. He had a bad feeling something had gone wrong, but couldn't bring himself to ask. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, he gathered the necessary courage.

"…What is it, Freya?"

"It's Ceres. She…" Freya trailed off, unsure how to say it. "Something happened. She says to go home right away. Her exact words were 'it's something you and Rei really, really need to see'."

The message relayed by Ceres had been innocuous enough. But judging from the look on Freya's face as she relayed it…

_Hell no._

Rei did his utmost to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach as the three of them hurried home.


	14. Not so Different

Not far from the commercial district was the residential area, at the easternmost end of which was a large apartment building for those who didn't have the money to have houses of their own. All kinds of people lived here. Coincidentially, exactly across the district lay the Mikage residence.

The ones who lived here, to say the least, were a colourful lot. Most of its residents were either students from either outside the city or from outside the country, teens who'd been kicked out of the house by irate parents, or young couples who'd eloped and ran off together against the wishes or their families.

However, the man who lived in unit 72, building B, did not fall under any of these categories.

Lorenzo Auditore, 32 years old. An Italian businessman, he'd moved here to Tokyo 3-4 years ago to take the reins of the Far Eastern branch of Apex Corp, the corporation his family had owned for generations. Somewhere down the line he'd met a girl 6 years his senior at a business function. It didn't take long for the two to fall in love.

After a tumultuous relationship of 2 years, they'd gotten married and had a daughter, though he had to insist that she not carry his surname, nor could they live together under one roof. When asked why, he'd warned his wife that he had enemies who would no doubt use her or their little girl against him.

And while his wife didn't like it, she acquiesced, having come to fully trust in him and his judgment.

Of course, reflected Lorenzo while munching on a sandwich in front of his laptop, that he forbade her for the time being to carry his surname didn't mean that he didn't care for her, or for their daughter – or for that matter, for her younger brother, who she had raised ever since their parents passed away. To begin with, he himself wasn't a fan of their current arrangements, but he knew perfectly well his enemies would have no qualms going after his family if they knew.

To that end, Lorenzo left them with two things: a bank account loaded with more than enough money for them to live comfortably, and a persocom of their own. The persocom had been both his personal assistant and bodyguard, with enough training to rival even the most highly trained of elites. If anyone so much as laid a finger on his family, she would destroy them long before he would ever get the chance to.

It was a no-brainer, thought Lorenzo; he could protect himself in any case, and quite well at that. And besides, he had another personal assistant – in fact, the twin of the one he'd given to his wife – to watch his back, just in case. The skills, both learned and programmed, possessed by his twin persocoms, made the both of them the best at whatever they did.

His persocom also served a secondary function: keeping him connected to the outside world. He knew perfectly well he didn't shut himself in his pad, but even then, it was his persocom who served as his eyes and ears, updating him on current events and communicating regularly with her twin to check on his family.

And as she came to him in that slow, sensual gait of hers, he knew that something had come up.

"Oh hi, Demi," he greeted her, "Is something wrong?"

Demi was short for Demeter, the name with which he'd christened this persocom when she was first created. She and her twin had been named for the same Olympian goddess – respectively, her Greek and Roman names – which also meant that they had effectively been given the same name. She nodded, keeping her blue eyes locked onto his and fixing her blue hair, so like that of her sister, so it didn't get in her eyes.

"Oh no, sir, it's nothing. I've gotten correspondence from my sister."

Watching Demeter, whose eyes glazed over for a moment, Lorenzo knew that she was reviewing the contents of her sister's message. He highly doubted something bad happened; for one thing, given that both Demeter and her twin now possessed real emotion, one would expect her to have a more emotional reaction were anything to have happened to her sister. Still, he waited, wondering what updates he'd get tonight.

"Are you prepared to hear it, sir?"

He nodded, and then listened.

And when Demeter had finished, he thought deeply on what he had just heard, on the recent goings-on in his wife's household. It didn't take him long to decide what to do with the information he'd just received.

"Demi," said Lorenzo as he went through the wardrobe in his room, pulling out four small and identical wooden boxes, "When do you think you can see your sister again?"

She perked up at that. "I can go over there whenever I wish," she informed him.

Which was true. His wife was very accommodating to Demeter, and their daughter adored her just as much as she did her twin, who happened to be her nanny. She'd yet to encounter his brother-in-law, not to mention the newcomer, but that was only because he had school and, from what her twin had told her, she rarely if ever left his side. "What would you ask of me?" she awaited her master's order.

"I need you to give these to them," said Lorenzo as he opened one of the boxes, revealing what appeared to be a bracer not unlike the one both Demeter and he himself always wore when going out. "I know your sister never goes out unarmed, but it wouldn't hurt for her to have these, too."

"And for that matter," he added, voicing out a gut feeling he had, "My brother-in-law may need them, too, before long."

Demeter nodded as her master put all four boxes in a backpack, which he then nudged towards her. She took it and, slinging it over her shoulder, stepped outside, into the cool night air.

He just hoped that, this time, his gut would turn out to be wrong.

\------

She didn't envy Rei with respect to Freya.

Not one bit.

This was all Ceres knew as she sat in their living room, doing what she could to comfort a girl – Nanako, she said her name was – still recovering from the ordeal.

Sure she was a persocom, but her nature as an artificial being did little to keep her from feeling for the girl she had saved. And that was what weighed Ceres down right now; just as Oyuki's laughter brought a smile to her face, and just as seeing Rei and Freya gave her the warm fuzzies, so too did she feel the pain readily apparent from the way Nanako shook as she continued to cry into Ceres' apron.

"There's no need for you to cry anymore," Ceres whispered to Nanako soothingly, reassuringly, words not unlike those she usually reserved for when she put Oyuki to sleep.

The next words, however, more closely resembled something Rei would have said to Freya, as did the tone of voice in which she said it.

"I'll protect you."

"That's a promise."

The door swung gently open as Rei and Freya came in.

"We're home, Ceres," Rei called out, his plea for everything to have been alright obvious beneath his faux-cheerful voice. There was nothing else it could have been, as his eyes had already fallen on Ceres and Nanako just as they had opened the door.

Ceres herself wanted to indulge him, say that everything was alright, but whatever words she might have said in this regard would have been contradicted by the look on her face. She couldn't even open her mouth to speak, let alone tell the boldfaced lie that things were fine.

Rei's smile faded as he gazed at Ceres holding the sobbing wreck in her arms, and remembered her message to Freya about something he needed to see. It didn't take him long to put two and two together, but still he hoped against hope he was wrong when he asked.

"Is something… wrong?"

At this, Freya tapped him on the shoulder, giving him a look as if to chastise him for being insensitive at a time like this. And by the time Ceres had explained the situation to them, telling them that she'd rescued her from an attempted rape, Rei himself looked apologetic and remorseful for earlier. Realizing that Nanako's situation wasn't that far removed from Freya didn't help at all.

"We're not so different, then."

It was Freya who said this. Ceres looked at her, realizing she was right. Like Nanako, Freya had obviously gone through some trauma for her to have been in that state when they first met her. Even Nanako herself, whose face was still buried in Ceres' chest, looked up. Her eyes appeared red and raw from all the crying, but the mask of pain had mostly gone from her face, to be replaced with a blank, confused look.

"Not… different?"

"You're like me?"

Freya gave no verbal reply, instead going over to the girl to give her a comforting, sisterly embrace. She focused on communicating to the girl all the things she wanted to say, yet couldn't put into words. And judging from the way she had calmed down and stopped crying, it seemed to work.

Finally, when Freya let her go, Nanako looked back at Ceres, cracked a tearful smile, then pounced her into another embrace. This time, though, it was one of gratitude and of hope.

"…Thank you."

Nanako looked up from Ceres' chest for a moment, her wide, innocent eyes locked onto the persocom's deceptively cold blue orbs.

"…Will you walk me home?"

Ceres looked taken aback by the sudden request, but decided to accept.

_She'll recover._

_If Freya could pull herself together again, there's no reason this girl shouldn't._

It was 9 in the evening when Nanako finally decided to go home. Ceres walked out the door first, with the girl she had saved rushing to catch up to her. And as the pair walked out the house, Freya's eyes narrowed faintly as Nanako held Ceres' hand.

"Well, Rei…" Freya looked back at him, and then at Oyuki, who had fallen asleep in her stroller, "You should probably rest up, you've got class tomorrow."

\------

Project Nephilim was now under way.

In a certain office located somewhere in the Far Eastern branch of Abstergo Industries, a young man studied the two different sets of blueprints laid on his desk. One set of blueprints belonged to the late Dr. Regenschirm, who had been killed, along with his assistants, by his own creation. It was most unfortunate, he thought, but not overly unsurprising, given how the good doctor had been gone and messed around where he should have known better.

The young man pulled his labcoat closer to himself as he recalled something that had happened to him over a year ago, during which he'd tried to grope a certain prototype persocom – and ended up nearly crushed to death to show for it. It was there that he learned, the hard way, that persocoms were more than just mindless dolls to be used and abused at a whim.

The other set of blueprints, meanwhile, had supposedly been stolen from the personal files of [i]the[/i] creator of all persocoms, Dr. Ichiro Mihara himself. The youth had no idea how they'd done it, but then of course, Abstergo did have a reputation of consistently getting the things it wanted.

Since Regenschirm's entire team had been wiped out, it was this man who had been appointed to personally direct and supervise Project Nephilim. The objective, as explained by the late doctor's close friend Dr. Warren Vidic, was to create a persocom whose combat capabilities could match and even surpass the product of the ill-fated Project Seraph.

To help him work towards that objective, Vidic had provided him with those sets of blueprints. Dr. Mihara's files were for the creation of the persocom itself, while those from Regenschirm detailed the modifications and enhancements the persocom would be given. Curious as to what Project Seraph's result had been capable of, the youth checked Regenschirm's files first.

_No way. This..._

_It's Motosuwa's persocom!_

The outfit she was dressed in – long, immaculate robes with identical bracers on both arms – was something he'd never seen her dressed before, but he'd recognize her anywhere. The innocent face, the floor-length hair, those white-and-pink housings she had for ears… there was no doubt about it. If this wasn't Chii, it was her sister. And if Chii didn't have a sister, this persocom had somehow been created based on her blueprints.

_…No wonder she killed them._

Once he'd gotten over his shock at that, it became obvious as to exactly how Regenschirm had gone wrong. Motosuwa's 'com was unique in that it had started out having free will, unlike most other persocoms that only obtained free will after a certain incident. And if they'd kidnapped her – not too difficult, he remembered, considering how spacey she often was – and turned her into a murderous doll, she probably wouldn't have taken it too well.

She would have done exactly what Regenschirm's so-called Platinum Angel would have done.

Kill the ones responsible, then escape. Run home to Motosuwa, if that was indeed his persocom.

_Wait a minute. They want me to do…?_

_What in the…_

Horror set in as he realized what Abstergo wanted done. He was to repeat Regenschirm's science project – possibly leaving out the free will this time around. From there, the persocom would undoubtedly eliminate Regenschirm's little angel, as well as anyone else who had come into contact with her, before she would be sent to kill who knew how many more.

The idea appalled him, to say the least. He was a bit of a jackass, true enough; his peers at that persocom BBS had noticed that. Jackass though he may have been, though, he wasn't a _murderous_ jackass, and if he went through with this the way Abstergo wanted him to, he'd end up with blood on his hands.

Besides, oddly enough, he'd grown fond of 'M'. And of Motosuwa and his 'com, to a lesser extent.

_Thing is, I can't just hand in my resignation, can I?_

The young man heaved a sigh as he made his decision.

There was no guarantee that no one would die, but hopefully, the body count might not be as high.

He just hoped his little gambit wouldn't end up biting him in the ass.


	15. Freya's Fragment

_Where does this girl live, anyway?_

Ceres couldn't help but wonder that as Nanako led her by the hand through crowded streets and deserted alleyways. They must have been walking for at least half an hour, maybe more, seeing as she was about to lose count of exactly how far they'd gone. The persocom wondered just how she managed to get home safely.

Granted, Rei's school wasn't exactly near, either; in fact, Rei called it 'distant walking'. But then, considering that [i]he[/i] at least had Freya, who even now stayed close to him like her life depended on it, safety wasn't as much of a problem in his case. She, Ceres, was more dangerous than she looked, and not just because of the gun in her apron, either; for one thing, her powers of perception and observation rivalled that of any tracker.

And looking at Freya, Ceres sensed that, somehow, she was the same.

Nanako, on the other hand…

She was cute as a kitten, Ceres admitted to herself privately, but also as harmless and helpless as one. She was reminded of that woman from New York, decades ago. Nearly 40 people witnessed her being stalked and murdered, but none of the callous bastards could be bothered to call for the police. In her mind, that made them nearly as bad as the murderer himself.

"We're here," Nanako announced happily, jolting her from that morbid line of thinking in the process, as they arrived at some apartment building.

Ceres took one look at the building and couldn't help but notice how plain it seemed. To call it a place to live in, might not have been that accurate, thought the persocom; it seemed more like a warehouse for people. One look was enough to give him a mental picture of what Nanako's family was probably like.

Nanako made to open the door, but turned to face Ceres instead after a moment's hesitation.

"…Thanks, Ceres," she muttered, cracking a shy smile at the bluenette. "D'you think… you could walk me home tomorrow?"

Ceres was silent. _That_ request was something she didn't expect. In hindsight, though, it was understandable; after what happened to her tonight, Nanako was probably afraid it might happened again. In light of that, Ceres didn't blame her one bit.

On the other hand, she still had her duties as Oyuki's nanny, and she couldn't neglect those.

Unless of course, she were to pull strings.

"Sure," Ceres decided to grant her request.

And as Nanako entered the building after embracing her tightly in thanks, she decided to make arrangements with Freya first thing after returning home. And then –

"Sweet on you, isn't she?"

Ceres jumped at the voice from behind her; in one fluid motion, she pulled her gun from out of her apron, before cocking and then aiming it at whoever had startled her.

"Really, Ceres? You'd shoot me?"

Their outfits were opposites in terms of color scheme – the newcomer's dress being black in contrast to Ceres' white – but otherwise, they were mirror images. Same blue hair, same pointy ears, same eyes…

Standing before Ceres was her other self.

_"…Demi?"_

\------

September 28th, daylight.

As was her usual custom, Freya stood not far from Rei as he slept on his bed, more peacefully than she expected considering the upheaval of the past couple of days. He was clearly something else, she thought, if he could take those revelations and still carry on like nothing happened.

Not that she was complaining. Unusual as it was for Rei to take those revelations in stride, Freya much preferred the peaceful, beautiful dreamer in front of her as compared to a Rei plagued by nightmares. Not only did he not look like he was in torment, he wore an expression of what might have been utter bliss. Freya wondered privately if she was in his dreams, somehow.

_…Really. So you're a stalker now as well as an assassin?_

Freya scowled inwardly at the voice at the back of her head, feeling a rush of irritation that only got worse at her inability to come up with a believable rebuttal. Granted, it was her idea to stand watch as he slept; the only reason persocoms 'slept' was to conserve on power, and her power source kept her energized enough for 'sleep' to be unnecessary. But even then…

_Heat source detected._

That recent update quashed any conflict she had about standing guard over Rei. Quickly, yet stealthily, Freya stalked down the stairs as she prepared to confront whoever it was. She activated her hidden blades as she prepared to get the jump on her enemy –

"Freya?"

…Only to feel like an idiot as she saw the figure waiting at the bottom landing. It was only Ceres, though the backpack she was carrying was new. Heaving a sigh of relief, she once again retracted her weapons.

"Don't scare me like that, Ceres, it's not funny."

Now that she had relaxed, it was easy to see the way her fellow persocom was shifting uneasily. Freya supposed she was still rather embarrassed from her admonishment, but the blond 'com knew Ceres better than that. In that case…

"You wanted to ask me something, then?"

The hesitation returned, which only served to confirm Freya's guess. "And does this request of yours have anything to do with a certain girl?"

Once again, the way she flinched gave her away, though Freya had to give Ceres credit for _almost_ immediately recovering. "P-pretty much, yeah."

She'd taken to reading those psychology textbooks Rei had for his classes, the contents of which only served to expand or otherwise reinforce her programmed knowledge. She couldn't exactly read or predict the thoughts of her fellow persocom, though – as Rei told her, psychologists weren't necessarily mind readers. Rather, she'd decided to mention Nanako just to see her reaction, only to find that her guess was spot-on.

"I promised to walk her home again tomorrow."

"Alright," Freya nodded. "But what do I have to do with it?"

So it _wasn't_  a figment of her imagination that she'd seen the girl clasp onto Ceres' hand as they departed from here last night. She felt like explaining to Ceres the concept of psychological transference – something she was sure was the case with respect to how Nanako regarded her – before thinking better of it. It'd be rather hypocritical for her to do so, considering that that was most likely how her thing for Rei got started.

"Can you cover for me with Oyuki?" Ceres asked. "I'll be at the gate when Rei gets off, and I'm pretty sure you'll be with him, so…"

Freya hardly heard Ceres as she trailed off. Whether or not she was right, the fact remained that it probably _would_ be better for Ceres to accompany Nanako. Leaving aside feelings the girl may or may not be having, Nanako probably did deserve to have something beautiful come her way after the terror she felt last night. Besides, she'd already grown somewhat fond of Oyuki, so it wasn't that big of a burden.

_The poor girl deserves a break, anyway._

"…Alright," Freya nodded as she replied. "And those bags?"

"I'll explain later today. Thanks, Freya!"

With that, Ceres went up the stairs, no doubt to resume her usual duties as Oyuki's keeper.

Much later, Rei and Freya were on their way to school. They went their usual route, one that offered the most possible exposure to crowds – Freya's idea; after all, sometimes the best place to hide from whoever was after her was in plain sight. For his part, Rei was at first confused over Freya's apparent compulsion to follow the crowd, but decided to just go with it. She was probably a lot smarter than he was, anyway.

After half an hour, during which they made numerous turns and detours, they'd arrived at the village near school; indeed, Rei could see the campus buildings not far from their current location. He was looking forward to seeing Shana and the rest again – hell, he'd have been glad to come across Asakura as well, if only to see him wet himself at the sight of Freya. If nothing else, an asskicking at the hands of a cute girl was rather emasculating, even worse for the cute girl in question to have been a persocom.

Though really, thought Rei, his nemesis had nothing to be ashamed of. Freya wasn't just a persocom, after all –

_The hell?_

His thoughts got cut off as a van stopped just ahead of them.

\------

They had her surrounded.

Chii and Hideki left the house together this morning, like they usually did; he'd even personally escorted her to Tirol, just to make sure there wouldn't be a repeat of what they called 'the Dragonfly incident'. He knew Kojima wouldn't have dared try anything like that again, but then again, Chii [i]was[/i] a special persocom, and so he resolved not to take his chances. It was even more important now, he said, because he didn't want what happened to Freya to happen to her.

Chii, for her part, was glad to be accompanied by the person just for her, as even she knew that this wasn't an everyday occurrence. In fact, the first thing she asked Hideki when they went out together was why he was following her. She didn't really understand what she saw as a vague reference to Freya, either.

The way she saw it, she was getting an occasional treat, and so she didn't complain. Given that she was early for work, and that Hideki wasn't even late for school, things were all good. Finally, just as they neared Tirol, they split up after a kiss and embrace.

Chii walked on…

Only to encounter _this_  dirty dozen.

That Chii didn't notice them wasn't surprising; unlike her sister, who only appeared spacey, it was genuine in her case. In fact, her obliviousness even applied to what was currently taking place inside of her, where the gift her sister had given her was silently making itself known.

In any case, it was highly unlikely Chii would have noticed them at all. For one thing, unlike what happened in similar scenes in fiction, these ninjas – what else would they be, considering their swords and those crisp, black outfits? – were not, in fact, highly visible.

Indeed, to Chii, it was as if they'd just crawled out of the landscape.

"Unit SPU-009," said one of them, a tall, wiry fellow wielding a dagger of sorts, "Abstergo's Platinum Angel. You are to cease your resistance and come quietly with us."

Chii only gaped, clueless and confused. Platinum Angel? Wasn't that –

 _"Me,"_  a _very_  familiar voice in her head finished for her.

_Freya?_

_"Chii… my dearest sister…"_

_"Trust me on this."_

_"I'll protect you. I promise."_

Freya – or at least, the fragment of her that resided in her sister – had hoped, very much, that Chii would never need her gift, and for a while that hope seemed realized. But with these… interlopers… around her, it seems that her sister would require her protection after all.

"Chii…"

Chii barely managed to mouth her own name as a powerful feeling of lethargy took hold of her. Her head bowed as she fell to her knees, her arms hanging limp and useless. Seeing an opening, the leader stepped forward to restrain her, but –

"Damn 'com…!"

From a position of seeming vulnerability, Chii's hands flashed out, grabbing hold of her attacker's wrist and then driving it back so as to stab him in the neck with his own weapon. No sooner had this happened than she pulled out the dagger, grabbed it from the dead man's hand, and brandished it threateningly at his compatriots.

The would-be repo men took a step back in fear, knowing all too well what this persocom had done the night she escaped. There was no doubt in their minds that this was the one who'd wiped out a squad of Abstergo Agents all by herself.

 _"How dare you threaten my sister,"_  Freya's fragment spat, her deeper, huskier voice a stark contrast to that of her innocent, childlike sibling. _"How dare you threaten my loved ones."_

_"I hope you've made your peace, because you're all going to die here today."_

Even as she said this, though, she realized that Chii's body possessed none of her own body's enhancements. And obviously, Chii also lacked the hidden blades that she had used to lethal effect. Freya would have to rely solely on her programmed skills and hope they were enough to see the both of them through this.

After all, fragment or not, she'd sworn to protect her sister. It wouldn't do for her to come out of this skirmish in anything less than one piece.

One of the repo men rushed at her with a katana, only for her to dodge the clumsy downward strike, sway to the man's right and drive her stolen weapon into the back of his head. Another one came from behind her, hoping to take her head off, but she ducked under the swing and stabbed him through the chin. Yet another attacked from the right, only to fall dead as Freya whirled on the spot and tossed her dagger right into his forehead.

_No…!_

Freya looked up just in time to see another Agent flying at her in an aerial assassination, in an attempt to dispatch her with her own signature attack. Barely managing to dodge, she breathed an inward sigh of relief; without her enhancements making her more durable and granting her the ability to regenerate, that one would have been the end for her sister for sure.

Without missing a beat, the Agent leapt up at the persocom in a follow up to his earlier attack, but this time she was ready. Once again she sidestepped, this time to the Agent's left, before trapping him in a headlock from behind and then snapping his neck. And as he crumpled to the floor, Freya relieved him of his single hidden blade and wore it on her left arm.

Then, almost casually, she took a step backward as two more tried to flank her from both sides – only to end up quite literally impaling each other on their own swords. _Serves you right,_  she thought.

Freya glared at the rest of the enemies before her, waiting for who would be next to try – and die.

\------

He didn't like this, he thought as he watched the persocom pick off his team one by one, but he had no choice.

In Cross' absence, it was he, Matteo Mancini, who was in charge of leading the team. He was the one who came up with the plan to ambush this girl, and he really would be out there with his comrades, but they told him in no uncertain terms that [i]he[/i] had to survive. And the worst part was, he knew they were right. If none of them survived to report back to the boss, their deaths would all be in vain.

But that didn't change the fact that they were dying like animals, to that… thing and, drugged as he was, it was all he could do watch from the shadows.

Practical or not, Matteo didn't like it at all.

\------

As Freya danced her deadly dance, her enemies' number dwindled.

Slowly they died, one by one. Finally, of the Abstergo Agents who'd earlier numbered at a dozen, only one was left, clearly the youngest of them, backing away in terror as the mechanized demon advanced toward him with intent to kill.

Then, when he was at her feet, she stopped.

_"You."_

Her voice, about as warm as the arctic wind, chilled the blood in his veins. He forced himself to look up at her, lest his rudeness cost him his life.

_"Next time I see you, you die."_

She lunged forward. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for death…

But rather than the cold steel of her hidden blade in his heart, he instead got a backfist to the neck. He let out a gasp of shock and pain as he fell unconscious to the ground.

Freya took one last look at the carnage around her. After a moment had passed, she shook her head and ran away to Tirol, before giving back Chii's body.

And as she relinquished control, Freya's final thought was that at least Chii hadn't witnessed all that.


	16. Worth Dying For

_If at all possible, I sincerely hope you never find need for my… gift._

These words, spoken by Freya just the other night, now suddenly came back to haunt Yuzuki as she brought Minoru his breakfast. That her gift was compressed and encrypted was disturbing; its resistance to her attempts at decompressing and/or decrypting it, even more so. But quite possibly the most ominous thing about it was what Freya told her, just before severing their connection.

 _He's important to you, isn't he, Yuzuki?_  
  
She'd tried to deny it, but Freya saw right through her. Yuzuki felt only slightly annoyed as she recalled this, though it wasn't exactly something she worked hard to hide. She made no secret of the fact that she cared for Minoru, but admitting the true extent of her feelings was another matter entirely. She was a persocom, he was a human; for there to be anything between them was quite probably little more than wishful thinking on her part.

Still, Freya saw through her. Freya understood, having herself come to love a human, however oblivious the human in question happened to be. Yuzuki wanted Minoru to always be safe and sound, and was more than willing to put herself in harm's way for him – in fact, she'd already done so, once before, and nearly paid a heavy price for it.

Freya surely possessed the same desire, and in her case, she also had the power to see it through –

She stopped herself there. It couldn't be, could it…?

 _And overthinking it helps you…_  how, _exactly?_

A feeling of trepidation took hold of her as she realized what Freya's gift could possibly be.

Yuzuki wouldn't resent her, no matter what happened, but she prayed she'd never have to find out what it was she'd been given.

\------

Freya barely noticed as Shana got down from the van, decked Rei, and then dragged the both of them into the van.

She hardly reacted when the guard turned her away at the gate as usual, her movements all but mechanical as she scaled the campus walls to get in.

And when she beat Rei and friends to their classroom and then took her usual seat beside him, she just sat there, her head bowed in deep thought at what she just learned.

Her mind was on the gift she'd given to Chii. Quite literally speaking, Freya had given part of herself to her sister, to awaken if and only if she should come under attack, so she could always be protected. Needless to say, it was a gift she very much hoped her sister would never need.

Sadly, fate seemed to have other ideas.

Freya replayed the events in her head, as witnessed and then relayed by the fragment of her inside Chii. She'd just separated from Hideki on the way to Tirol when she was ambushed by Abstergo Agents. It seemed they hadn't learned their lesson, either, judging from their demand that Freya returned with them to Abstergo.

Perhaps they mistook Chii for her – or, more likely, they wanted to do to Chii what they'd done to Freya. Either way, it was at that point that her fragment took over and explained to them – in a manner of speaking – why trying to get her to come back would be a bad idea, and why trying to capture her sister would be even _worse_.

She was lucky that none of the Agents carried firearms of any sort – either that, or they had been ordered to capture and not eliminate her. Because for all that Freya's fragment retained all the skills she herself had, Chii herself had never been enhanced, which meant that anything that managed to find its mark on her would be just as lethal as it were to another human being. If she'd been a second slower on the dodging…

Freya shuddered at the thought.

Finally, the professor arrived. Glad of a reason to ditch that particular train of thought, Freya stood up and did as Rei and his classmates did.

\------

Lorenzo Auditore got up from what was possibly the most highly sophisticated chair in the world, and was unsurprised to see Demeter standing right before him.

"Oh hi, Demi, good morning. Were you able to meet your sister?"

He'd just finished exploring the memories of possibly his most famous ancestor: Ezio Auditore da Firenze, one of the Assassin Order's Grand Masters, responsible for almost singlehandedly ousting the Borgia family from their seat of power. It wasn't even his first time, either. Time and again he'd followed the exploits of his ancestor from the moment his father and brothers had been hanged in the town square of his native Florence, until his death, at age 65, in that same place.

Lorenzo's sessions in the Animus were a very important part of his day. Just as he did his morning runs and exercises as a way of keeping fit, his daily forays into the life of his illustrious forbear kept his Assassin skills sharp by means of the bleeding effect. At its simplest, this was a way for him to assimilate the skills and knowledge Ezio had possessed in his lifetime.

Beneficial as it was, though, it wasn't without its dangers.

The truth was that the bleeding effect wasn't that far removed from multiple personality disorder, among other things. The chief hazard associated with it was that one may not be able to separate his own memories with those of his ancestors, and thus end up going insane. It already happened to one of their own, once before: Clay Kaczmarek, otherwise known as Animus Subject No. 16, who eventually committed suicide.

Nevertheless, thought Lorenzo, some risks were worth taking.

He just hoped that, when _his_ time came, his brother-in-law would be able to handle it as well.

"Master?" Demeter said suddenly just before Lorenzo completely spaced out.

"I managed to meet up with Ceres, last night," she began, cracking a small smile.

"We had quite a bit of catching up to do…"

_"Demi?"_

_"Did you follow me all this way, by any chance?"_

_Ceres was confused as to what her twin was doing here. As far as she knew, Demeter had remained with their master while she went to live with their mistress._

_Ceres knew that her sister did visit the Mikage house from time to time, but only if it was important. And if she'd followed her all the way here, it must have been very important indeed. And now that Ceres looked at her sister properly, she saw that she had a backpack slung over her shoulder._

_She deduced that, whatever it was her sister needed to see her for, it had something to do with the backpack's contents._

_"Not quite, sister. You'd already left the house when I came across you." At this, Demeter's face split into a mischievous little smirk. "I gotta admit, that girl's kinda sweet on you. Don't tell me she's your–?"_

_"No she isn't, Demi," Ceres cut off her sister fiercely; that was probably the most outrageous thing she'd ever heard, and she'd heard a lot of crazy things over the course of her life. "And don't change the subject, either. It's something to do with that bag you've been carrying, right?"_

_Instead of answering, Demeter withdrew a small, rectangular box from inside the backpack, which she opened and then showed to Ceres. It was what their master called the hidden blade, the iconic weapon used by members of his Order. The one Demeter showed her sister was an exact copy of the one she and their master kept on them at all times._

_And Freya had one exactly like it, too, she remembered, though she'd yet to confront the blond persocom about it._

Wait, what?

_"Gifts for you all, he said," Demeter explained. "His specific instructions were for you to take one and keep it on you from now on."_

_"But why?" Ceres questioned. She knew perfectly well that her function as Oyuki's nanny was merely a secondary directive, and that her main function in the Mikage household was to ensure the safety and protection of the Mikage family at all times. But the thing was, she already carried a weapon around for that purpose. It was lethal enough already, and she hadn't had to use it at all until last night._

_"Is Rei gonna get one of these, too?"_

_"I'm sorry, sister," Demeter offered a placating, conciliatory smile. "He didn't explain why you needed one. But if you ask me, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have just the gun to rely on. If you were to get arrested, we might not be able to get you out. I mean, sure, we have connections of our own, but we're not quite as well-connected as Abstergo," she reminded her._

_"You wouldn't be able to see Oyuki, Rei, the mistress, or that_ girl, _ever again," she smirked at Ceres at the emphasized word, ignoring the look of betrayal her sister gave her. "Is that what you want?"_

_"Oh, and as for Rei," she added, referring to their master's brother-in-law, cutting off Ceres' retort at that last crack about her and Nanako, "His exact words were that he had a feeling he'd need it before long."_

"Can you believe it, master? Ceres seems to have gotten herself a _girlfriend!_ "

Demeter giggled at the thought. Lorenzo, who'd gone for a drink of water in the meantime, began to cough and gag at [i]that[/i] particular update. He'd always treated both Demeter and Ceres as more than just automatons, but that did little to blunt the shock of what he'd just heard. So, Ceres had found love of her own?

It'd be something to tease her about if and when he saw them again.

But right now…

"Anything else, Demi?" Lorenzo pressed on. He wished he didn't have to keep on asking, but the problem was that his own measures to protect his family forbade him to be with them physically. As such, he relied on his twins – he smiled at Demeter as he thought this – to keep him updated on the daily goings-on at his wife's house.

"Yes, sir," Demeter confirmed. She stood up straighter as she felt her master's gaze upon her.

Then, slowly, she regurgitated everything else her sister had shared, leaving no leaf unturned.

\------

Daniel Cross seethed inwardly as he received his subordinate's report.

He'd gone back to headquarters just yesterday, feeling that the higher-ups deserved to hear straight from his mouth exactly what he thought of their so-called Project Nephilim. He took them to task quite thoroughly, too, reminding them exactly how many of their own had died at the hands of that persocom. Even if they were to create this new one from scratch, he said, there was still no guarantee they'd be able to keep her under control, and then they'd have a job explaining the ensuing casualties to their employees' families.

Unfortunately, as Daniel himself had put so crudely, they still had their heads stuck up their asses.

They told him that considering how his subordinates hat yet to move in on her, they figured a persocom would be more successful. Said persocom, they said, would be subservient to their will anyway, so what could possibly go wrong? He imagined Regenschirm had felt the same way, until his own creation taught him otherwise.

_Well, on your own heads be it. Idiots._

And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, his subordinate gave him _this_  news.

Daniel Cross was head of Abstergo's Operations Division; as such, it followed that his handpicked Agents would be the cream of the crop, the best of the best to have graduated the Animus Virtual Training Program. In all of Abstergo, the men and women under his command were supposed to be the deadliest. The most talented. The remaining 10% that was worth dying for – or, as would generally be the case, at the hands of.

And then some persocom made them all look like a bunch of bumbling buffoons.

Daniel knew there wasn't much his second-in-command could do about how things turned out, and so refrained from berating him. He remembered all too well what that persocom had done to his subordinates the night she escaped If anything, he felt just as much, if not more guilt and responsibility for what happened, given that he hadn't been there to personally lead the operation.

However, his acceptance and understanding of such an awful conclusion to his team's most recent operation did little to stop him being upset at this recent disaster. He was wondering why the safe flat his team had commandeered seemed to be missing ten people, only to find out, much to his disappointment and horror, that Mancini had returned from his operation with ten operatives too few.

Apart from Mancini, whose current look reminded Daniel of himself when he'd been having more of those prescription meds than was good for him, the only one who had survived the disaster was Pinocchio, the youngest and least experienced member of his personal retinue. And all they had to show for it were horror stories of how their other comrades had been killed in front of them.

It wasn't a question of whether his men hadn't been good enough. They were indeed the best to have come out of Abstergo's training program, and even trained regularly with each other to keep the rust off. The only problem was, their enemy knew every one of their moves and how to counter them. And on top of her enhancements…

He sighed. This latest loss wasn't altogether surprising.

And as he laid down on his bunk to take a well-deserved rest, Daniel swore that he _himself_ would make her pay for all she had done.


	17. I Promise

Outside St. Maur's Cafeteria, Freya sat by herself on a bench, obviously lost in thought.

She thought back to what had happened to her sister earlier this morning, to that attempt Abstergo had made at either capturing or eliminating her. That was what she'd feared above all – that they'd eventually go after her loved ones in an attempt to get to her. Granted, earlier might have been a fluke on their part, given that Freya and Chii were twins, but still…

Freya knew she couldn't help it if Abstergo mistook Chii for her. She was her twin sister, after all. Chii didn't have any of her enhancements, but outwardly the two were identical in every possible way.

The problem was, even awareness such as this failed to assuage the guilt she felt for having inadvertently endangered her younger and more innocent sibling.

Even Freya telling herself that she was able to protect her sister did nothing to help, as there was still the minor detail of it being her, Freya, who they wanted in the first place. And if ever they found out there were two of them, they might even get the bright idea of trying to do to Chii what they did to her...

She felt a tightness in her chest as a light breeze began to blow.

Freya thought to herself that her programmed skills would at least ensure safety for Chii and for herself. However, that attempt at reassurance fell flat a moment later as she realized that no one knew her lethality better than Abstergo. They'd turned her into this... thing, after all. Of course they'd know exactly how deadly she was, and eventually come up with something even worse.

 _And_  that, _dear Freya, is why you should_  never _tempt fate._

Sighing to herself, Freya got up from the bench to rejoin Rei and friends inside.

\------

"So tell me, Rei, are you and Freya… involved, or something?"

 _I can't say I'm surprised you noticed something_ , thought Rei sardonically as Shana asked this question.

It was their noontime break; they were sitting at their usual spot near the door of the school cafeteria, having just finished their lunch, while Freya went outside for a while to have a few moments of silence to herself.

Shana's intuition and observation skills were as sharp as ever, much to Rei's chagrin, though it hardly surprised him. As a psychology major, he too was capable of intuition and observation, but alas, it was women who generally had more talent in those respects.

If nothing else, though, Rei now knew why his inner voice was so spot-on when it came to snarking at him and driving him mad.

It sounded exactly like Shana's did now.

But then, he thought, there was a reason she was the unofficial 'mother' of their circle of friends. Not only did she have the tendency to nurture them even as she kept them in line, she also had an uncanny knack for guessing what was on their minds. Rei could only guess that she listened during their psychology classes, even more than he did, because there was absolutely no way she could be an _actual_ mind reader, could she?

Still, he tried to deny it. "Really, Shana? Where ever did you get that idea? I –"

Rei grimaced as she kicked him lightly in the foot, something she usually did whenever she was exasperated at whoever she was talking to. When she next spoke, it was in the motherly tone she knew how to affect so well.

"Face it, Rei. You're no bigot when it comes to human-persocom relations. I've heard you talk glowingly of Ceres and how she was like a second sister to you. You yourself said you spent the better part of two days trying to help Freya deal with her problems!"

Rei kept silent, knowing there was no arguing with Shana whenever she was in full-on 'mother' mode.

 _And she does have a point, you crocodile in denial,\_  added what he called his 'inner troll' in a highly irritating, singsong voice.

"And it's not like she doesn't feel anything for you, judging from those glances she keeps sneaking your way during class," she finished, an exasperated half-smile on her face.

She stopped talking for a moment to let all that sink in. The worst part of her little outburst wasn't that she took it out of context, but that it all hit a little _too_ close to home.

"We're your friends, aren't we?" Shana looked round at both Reiko and Kyo, both of whom were gazing at Rei avidly as she spoke. "Just come clean and admit it already, Rei. It's not like we'll laugh at you or anything."

At this, Rei explained to his friends the same thing he told Ueda yesterday: that Freya had gone through trauma at the hands of her previous owners; that he and Freya had indeed grown pretty close ever since she found her way to them, but that she was vulnerable at the moment and that it would be wrong to take advantage of her vulnerability. Yet even as he spoke, his inner voice couldn't help but make itself known again.

_Really, Rei. How long do you plan on denying it?_

Rei ruthlessly squelched it just as he did the first time around.

Unfortunately, Shana happened to agree with whatever it was inside him that wouldn't _shut the hell up,_ judging from the way she was shaking her head in growing irritation at his denial.

"Stop insulting my intelligence, why don't you?" Shana persisted, mounting annoyance evident in her voice. "I know an item when I see one! The way you two are around each other! And she doesn't quite smile at anyone else the way she does at you," her scowl turned into a smile at this as she looked at their friends. "Right, guys?"

At his friends' reaction, Rei grimaced to himself. There really was no getting anything past them, was there? Another denial and Shana might not be content to kick just his foot anymore.

_About time, too. You're not fooling anyone, you know._

At long last, Rei nodded.

"…Yeah. You're probably right."

It was right then that Freya resumed her seat, ashen-faced, beside Rei. The look on her face effectively killed any compunction on Shana's part to revel in having been right about them both.

"It was Chii," Freya said quietly, in a voice only Rei could hear. _Don't tell me…_

"She… was attacked."

Rei just got a ready-made excuse to not go through with his admission, maybe even go back on it, but he was far from relieved. Freya hardly deserved the attention of her former owners; Chii, even less. Whereas Freya could defend herself if something bad happened, Chii would be helpless as a newborn kitten. And if ever they did to her what they'd done to her sister...

_...Not good._

All Rei could do at the moment was to assure Freya that they'd visit Chii at Tirol after school.

\------

Chii was still confused and befuddled at what had happened earlier today.

It was supposed to be just another day of work for her, albeit one with Hideki accompanying her so nothing would happen to her again. She'd run into some men in black on the way to Tirol who thought she was Freya. Then she heard Freya's voice inside her head.

_Chii… my dear sister…_

_I'll protect you. I promise._

Next thing she knew, she was here.

Manager Ueda hadn't noticed it, and so she just went about things as though nothing was out of the ordinary. But that didn't mean it didn't happen. Chii herself tried not to think of what had transpired that morning as she and her co-worker, a young girl named Yumi, attended to their tasks at the shop.

She didn't know exactly _what_ had happened, but for some reason, she now wore a bracer on her left arm. It was very similar to that of her sister, only in Freya's case she had it on both arms. And just before that gap in her memory, she'd heard her sister's voice…

"Chii?"

She looked up to find Manager Ueda looking at her, holding a box of cake in his hands. His tone of voice, not to mention his expression, made it clear that he was very concerned about Chii right now. "Is something the matter, Chii?"

"Manager," Chii looked up, taking the cake and passing it over to Yumi, who was currently dealing with a waiting customer, "It's… Freya. Chii's sister."

Ueda nodded, smiling slightly as he understood. "Yeah, she's your sister, isn't she? What happened, Chii?"

Before Chii could answer, though, the bell rung as the door opened again; it was Hideki, having come to pick her up on the way home from school. He waved his hand at Yumi upon seeing her before turning toward Ueda and his persocom – _girlfriend,_ rather. Faint creases appeared on his forehead at the sight of the bracer Chii was wearing.

_Isn't that…_

"Oh, hello, Mr. Ueda!" Hideki greeted him as he came on over to Chii's side. "What's up?"

"Hi, Motosuwa," Ueda replied in turn, giving Chii her paycheck for the day while eyeing her left arm bracer. "Chii's sister was here the other day, by the way. Freya, wasn't that her name? She was with a young man and a baby," he recalled thoughtfully.

Hideki's eyes widened very slightly at that. So Rei and Freya had been here recently, then. He was almost sure that Chii seized the opportunity to bond with her sister and catch up with her. And now she seemed to have taken a leaf out of her sister's book with that thing on her arm…

"Chii?"

For the second time in less than an hour, Chii looked up as someone said her name.

"Hey, Chii, what's with that thing on your arm?"

She looked at it again, more closely this time. The inside of the bracer had a thin space in the middle, enough for something to fit in. It looked a lot like the one Freya had, except that she had two of them. It was a little heavy, too – not to a detrimental degree, but enough that even Chii knew it wasn't just something to wear on her arm.

And when she flicked her wrist slightly...

"G-gyahhhhhh! Chii, what the hell?"

Hideki's reaction was overblown as a blade extended from out of the bracer. Chii looked at it in awe and wonder before retracting it, much to Ueda and Yumi's astonishment. It was Freya's, alright… but why was Hideki looking at her like _that?_

Chii gazed up at Hideki, the expression on her face suggesting she'd just been caught doing something wrong.

"Hideki?"

The sadness was evident in her voice as she said his name.

"Is Chii bad?"

Hideki winced; he could _never_  bear it whenever Chii put on that heartbreakingly adorable puppy dog look. "Is Freya?"

Try as he might, he was unable to answer. Chii wasn't bad; not once did he ever think it, or otherwise consciously do anything to make her feel it. In fact, he quite often felt that he had the best girlfriend in the world – even if she was lacking in common sense at times. It was all he could do to give her a reassuring hug, the better to get his message across.

"No, Chii," he whispered so only she could hear, "You're not bad. Freya isn't bad, either." And he meant it, too; whatever had been done to Freya, he could see that she meant no harm.

At the same time, though, Freya surely knew Chii didn't know what her gift was, or what to do with it. Hideki believed that her heart was in the right place, but still, there was something to be said about giving a deadly weapon to your innocent and naïve little sister.

"She's not bad, Chii," Hideki reiterated when he let go of her. "But we're gonna have to have a word with her on that _present_ –"

"Alright, then," said a voice as Tirol's door opened yet again.

Freya looked from her sister to Hideki as she walked in the shop carrying Oyuki in her arms, Rei wheeling the stroller behind her.


	18. My Soul

"Well, Motosuwa?" Freya prompted, utterly calm despite the suspicions she was certain Hideki had about her. "What's on your mind?"

Hideki hesitated, at a loss for words. He wasn't entirely happy with the 'gift' Freya had given Chii, but even he knew that Freya's intentions were good. And as he struggled to voice out his thoughts clearly yet politely, the look on his face was one that suggested that he had something stuck in his throat.

In the meantime, the tension that had permeated the air had become all but palpable. At least, Rei thought so, given how even Ueda and that girl with him were looking on. He reflected how it was a good thing that they'd arrived just as the shop was about to close, and that no one else was there to witness the confrontation.

Rei just hoped that it'd end well for all of them.

"Freya," Hideki began, having finally recovered his voice, "Do tell me. What exactly did you give Chii, and why?"

Freya snorted, laying Oyuki down in her stroller before turning back to face him. She bowed her head as she crossed both her arms above her chest and, clenching her fists, extended both her hidden blades. After a moment had passed, in which she took in Ueda and Yumi both flinching at what she had done, she retracted them both.

"What did I give Chii?" Freya echoed aloud, trying to maintain civility even as she felt a ripple of anger at what Hideki was insinuating, "You could say I gave her my soul – part of it, anyway. She _is_ my sister, after all."

This she said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Isn't the elder sibling supposed to look out for her younger sibling?"

Hideki's eyes narrowed as he tried to digest what Freya meant. Her soul? He remembered how, in another time, another Freya had told her about how she'd done the same thing before she died.

But given how this Freya was still in the process of recovering her memories…

Freya was one step ahead of him, though, as she proceeded to answer the question he'd yet to ask.

"I gave her part of my own self, to awaken if and only if she ended up being attacked by the ones coming after me. I didn't want it to happen, but right after you'd left her to go to school this morning, they showed up."

Freya trailed off, partly to gather herself, but also to give Hideki some room to take it all in. No doubt he'd have some vehement objections with respect to her gift to her sister, which she expected. But if he had any violent reactions, he at least deserved to know the whole story before voicing them out.

"Chii was attacked on her way here, by the same guys who took me and changed me. In case you haven't noticed, dear Hideki, Chii and I are twins. Even I can't blame them for mistaking her for me; they'd have to be blind not to look at her and see me instead."

Her little reminder came off a little more acerbically than she'd intended, but Freya wasn't sure she cared just now. She understood perfectly well that Hideki, too, cared about her sister, but she didn't like what he seemed to be implying. To his credit, though, he didn't answer, simply looking down at his shoes as she said that.

Yumi and Ueda, too, were listening intently, the looks on their faces torn between shock and fascination. Rei's face was carefully neutral as he looked on, not wanting to intervene where he wasn't needed. He hadn't known about Freya gifting her sister with anything, but it was her business, after all, and she did have a point about it being her duty to protect her sister.

Though he still couldn't entirely blame Hideki if he wasn't down with it.

"Anyway…"

Both Hideki and Rei felt a surge of shock and alarm at this. Despite Freya still gazing hard into Hideki's eyes as she resumed her spot beside Rei and Oyuki, the sound of her voice came from behind him – from Chii, who at the moment was acting nothing at all like herself. For one thing, the grim expression worn by Freya-in-Chii was one Hideki never thought he'd ever see on Chii's face.

"My fragment in Chii only awakens when she's attacked, or, like right now, when I awaken it myself. The fact that she exists is already an excuse for them to come after her, so I thought I'd make it so that I could protect her wherever she goes. The good news is that this fragment retains all the skills they programmed me with, so if anyone wants to capture Chii, they'll need to work for it."

Still Hideki said nothing as he did his utmost to make sense of it all. He still didn't like the idea of Chii doing the kind of things he'd seen her sister do in that video, but neither could he argue with what Freya had said.

The simplest way of interpreting Freya's explanation was that her gift allowed her to 'possess' Chii – which, come to think of it, was nothing new. But…

_'Good news', huh?_

_If there's good news, then…_

The next words that came out of the possessed Chii's mouth confirmed what he was thinking even before he could finish it.

_There's bad news, too?_

"The problem is, even if I can still pull off the same moves while possessing Chii, she was never enhanced the way I was. She can fight them off this way, but she can't take much damage, and if things become drawn-out she'll eventually run out of power. If that happens…"

Freya didn't need to finish her sentence; from the look on Hideki's face, he could figure out exactly what would happen then. If Chii were to run out of power in such a scenario, it'd be the 'Kojima incident' all over again… only this time, the odds of getting her back would be much, much smaller.

"Do remember, Motosuwa," she reminded him, her voice having lost much of its tension, "They gave me a perpetual power generator to support all my enhancements. Chii doesn't have them. She'll be able to hold out for a while, but even then, normal persocoms were never meant for _those_ kinds of tasks."

Save for Rei, who already had at least some idea of what was going on, everyone was stunned at what Freya had told them. It seemed that Freya was even more different from Chii than she had already become, having been turned, both body and soul, into a killing machine.

"Believe me, Motosuwa, I don't like this any more than you do," Freya told him truthfully, this time using her own body. "If nothing else, it's probably a mercy that Chii won't be able to see or remember what happens whenever I take over her."

No sooner had she said this than the grim expression on Chii's face became one of confusion and befuddlement, indicating that Freya's fragment finally relinquished her control over her sister's body. She looked from Freya to Hideki, before joyfully glomping the latter.

"That was quite a fascinating bit of exposition," said an unfamiliar male voice as the door opened.

Hideki gasped in shock; he knew these two. Rei and Freya likewise turned towards the newcomers, the latter notably tensing as if preparing to release her hidden blades.

One was a tall male with a headpiece worn over his eyes, while the other was a female with untidy, spiky hair and piercing red eyes. Both of them were clad in black, which to Rei meant that they were probably aligned with some shady doomsday organization.

"Abstergo's Platinum Angel," greeted Zima, a thin smile on his face as Freya hissed in outrage at this stranger's use of her unwanted sobriquet. "I'm Zima. It's nice to finally meet you."

\------

Back at St. Benedict's Academy, Ceres waited for Nanako to come out.

The sun was already setting, and still the girl hadn't come out yet. At least three hours had passed since Rei and Freya had come out of the gate, the blond persocom taking her cute little ward with them. Just so she wouldn't be too bored while she waited, she'd bought a light graphic novel at the bookstore just in front of the school, then read it as she sat at one of the many benches in the school's waiting area. It was a pretty good one, too, thought Ceres; yuri manga [i]did[/i] happen to be a guilty pleasure of hers.

But by the time Ceres had finished reading, Nanako was still nowhere to be found.

At this point, Ceres was beginning to understand why Nanako had wanted to be walked home in the first place. She seemed to have had the rather unfortunate luck of having gotten night classes, which explained why she still hadn't come out even as Ceres' internal clock struck 6:30 PM.

The incident last night had no doubt served as a painful lesson for Nanako, which was why she asked her to accompany her home. Luckily for her, neither Lorenzo nor Sayuri had programmed Ceres with restrictions when it came to these things.

Her main task was to serve as Oyuki's nanny while safeguarding the Mikage family against threats, but beyond that, Ceres was pretty much free to do whatever she liked. For instance, there hadn't been a command barring her from helping Rei out with his schoolwork. More to the point, there was nothing stopping her from doing a favour to a girl who had possibly become her newest close friend. In effect, Ceres was already part of the Mikage family.

Their first meeting _was_ rather outrageous, and there was no point denying it. Armed persocoms weren't exactly common in today's society, nor was it a common occurrence that a persocom saved a young girl from an attempted rape. Demeter would no doubt have something witty to tell her if she was here right now.

But however morbidly their friendship began, mused Ceres as she continued to wait, it wasn't any less a friendship than had they met under more mundane circumstances, and what complaints she did have about it weren't all that serious. If nothing else, neither Demeter nor her master would be able to call her out on it.

After all, helping people in need was something members of her master's Order did on a regular basis.

"Ceres!"

Ceres didn't even have time to look up as Nanako wrapped her arms around her in a tight embrace, just as her internal clock hit 7 PM. She made a mental note to suggest to the girl hugging her to get a better schedule as soon as possible.

"I'm so happy to see you, Ceres," Nanako beamed at the persocom as she let go, "Were you here long?"

"No, not really. C'mon, let's get you home."

\------

_Huh?_

Minoru sat back in his chair as he found a new message in his email, from one Dragonfly.

_What could this be?_

Yoshiyuki Kojima, also known among custom persocom forums as Dragonfly, _was_ a friend of his, but in this case the word 'friend' was used very loosely. They argued a lot on the forums on all kinds of things when it came to custom persocoms, and of course, it had been him who'd kidnapped Chii that one time.

"What is it, L – Minoru?" asked Yuzuki as she came to his side. She was still fumbling with the name thing after Minoru had asked her to drop the honorifics when addressing him, though she was steadily getting better at it. He looked up at her, smiled, then pointed at his email.

Together they read through it, Minoru's face falling slowly but surely as he read each line. Finally, by the time they'd finish it, it was a grave look that adorned his youthful visage.

"'Project Nephilim'?" Yuzuki read aloud. "What could that be?"

Minoru didn't answer as he reread a certain part of Kojima's message: I'll inform you when I find out more. Project Nephilim… didn't that sound like…?

_Not good._

He had a very bad feeling about what he'd just read.


	19. To Protect Her

"I'm Zima. It's nice to finally meet you."

Whereas the look on Hideki's face clearly betrayed mingled shock and outrage, Rei just tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, his own subtle way of expressing his puzzlement and confusion at the sudden appearance of these newcomers. _These guys are weird… still, I like their outfits._

Ueda hoisted a welcoming smile on his face, indicating that Zima and his partner should take a seat somewhere in the shop. Likewise, Chii and Yumi gestured toward a table nearest to them, even as they realized that persocoms wouldn't have any use for anything they sold at Tirol.

Among them, it was Freya whose reaction was most telling. She stood up straight, but from the tension evident in her posture, not to mention from the way her arms were trembling, it was evident that she was contemplating whether or not they were potential hostiles. Apparently the newcomers also took notice, as Zima's partner's eyes were focused on the bracers she knew concealed Freya's weapons.

And when Zima turned to smile indulgently at Rei, it was his turn to freeze up and wonder just _what the hell was going on here_.

"It's nice meeting you too, Rei Mikage," Zima offered as he extended his hand. "I can see the two of you have become rather close since meeting each other. Why, if I didn't know better, I'd even say that you were newlyweds enjoying an afternoon date!"

_I think he's telling you the truth, dude._

Rei drew back like he'd been slapped. Whether or not he'd come to terms with his attraction to Freya, the fact remained that this Zima guy was too perceptive for his own good. That that _troll_  at the back of his head somehow spoken out of turn again didn't help his mood, either. He gritted his teeth in irritation at the nerve of the guy right in front of him.

"Alright, out with it," Rei snapped. "Just who are you and what do you want?"

"You–!"

Zima's partner moved as if to advance toward Rei, but he restrained her simply by gently gripping her shoulder. And as she slowly took a step back toward his side, he spread his arms wide as he addressed the youth.

"Come now, is that any way to thank me? I mean, really! I'll have you know it's because of me that your dear _girlfriend,_ " his emphasis on the last word earned him hateful glares from both Rei and Freya, both of whom also happened to be blushing violently, "hasn't been spotted by her evil former owners up till now!"

"…What?"

Rei's eyes narrowed at this. Though his distrust for these two was a long way from disappearing, the implications of what Zima had just said were not lost to him. They'd been helping them… from behind the scenes?

"That post on the internet? I mean, really, dear Rei? Forgive me, but it's not exactly the smartest thing you've done, is it? I had to delete it so [i]they[/i] wouldn't be able to trace it back to you!"

Now Rei understood what he meant. He remembered having made that inquiry on the BBS the other day, the one that directly led to his meeting with Minoru and to Freya's little family reunion. In hindsight, it really wasn't a good move on his part at all. But this guy –

"You've been spying on us, then?" Rei demanded, his distrust rising again even as he took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Is there anything else, or should we assume you just came here to piss us off?" He rarely if ever reached this point, but the revelation that a complete stranger was keeping tabs on every move they made was disgusting, if not downright infuriating.

Everyone else in the shop was shocked at this point. Zima's partner was quite notably speechless, which was unusual as she would have been the first to verbally spar with anyone who talked to him that way. Even Freya, who was closest to Rei among them, was wordlessly gaping at the scene, the shock written all over her features clearly indicating that she'd never seen this side of him either.

And behind Rei and Freya, Chii and Hideki could be noticed tightly clasping hands at what they were seeing. Finally, after a long and tense silence, Zima smiled thinly and once again offered a hand in friendship, a placating gesture on his part.

"Sorry about that." Oddly enough, he sounded unusually sincere; at any rate, the tone of snide amusement he'd used on a near-constant basis was notably absent at the moment. "That was just me getting carried away."

Rei's ire didn't quite evaporate at the apology, but he did give a curt nod in reply. "…Right, then. In that case, could you tell us what information you can?"

As night fell outside the coffee shop, Zima and his partner felt a mild disquiet at the ease with which Rei's mood shifted. Nevertheless, he cleared his throat as he prepared to share the one bit of information he was certain they didn't yet know.

"Tell me, Rei, Freya. Have either of you heard of Project Nephilim?"

Rei tilted his head to the side as before, this time to indicate a reply in the negative. Likewise, Freya confessed her lack of knowledge on that particular subject. Zima nodded at them, offering a conciliatory smile as he prepared to relate his speculation and conjecture as to what Abstergo's latest project could possibly be.

"Alright, then. You guys might wanna sit down."

Zima started off by mentioning the project that had turned Freya into what she was now – Project Seraph. The Seraph, he explained, were the ninth choir of angels, who in the Abrahamic religions were said to surround God's throne, singing his praises as they flew on their six wings. These angels, he said, featured most prominently in the Book of Enoch, as well as in the Book of Revelations – the final book of the New Testament sometimes called the book of the Apocalypse.

"Interesting," Rei remarked as Zima finished the lecture. "But what does this have to do with this so-called 'Project Nephilim'?"

The black-clad persocom threw up his hands defensively. "Easy kid, I'm getting there. Now, the Nephilim are angels, too. But if the Seraph are the highest of God's chosen, the Nephilim are what you'd call fallen angels: monstrously beautiful, but still monstrous. They're said to be what resulted when angels came down to earth and fell in love with humans."

By now, Zima couldn't help but smile slightly as his audience listened with rapt attention. Hideki and Rei in particular stood out, having found this lecture to be more interesting than most of the lessons their teachers had imparted to them at school. Freya, too, was attentive, but for the most part she already knew all this. And she did have an idea as to what Abstergo's latest project had to do with her, but…

_Surely not._

Ironically, that was precisely what Zima would cover next.

"Now, basically, the Seraph and the Nephilim are on opposite extremes when it comes to the angels' hierarchy," he pointed out with the air of a professor explaining simple mathematics to middle school students. "On one hand, you've got the Seraph, the highest choir of angels; on the other, the Nephilim, angels barred from heaven for the crime of falling in love with mortals. So similar, yet so different."

"And in the same way, Project Seraph was meant to create the ultimate assassin, but the persocom in question," he spared a moment to gaze meaningfully at Freya, "already happened to be human in every possible way. In that case, then Project Nephilim's result…?"

Freya didn't bother listening any further. As far as she was concerned, her worst fear had come true.

\------

Later that night...

"What's on your mind, Freya?"

Rei couldn't help but note how quiet Freya had been ever since Zima's 'lecture' earlier at Tirol. No doubt that she was worried. Not that he blamed her; the details on Abstergo's latest project were undoubtedly interesting, but were also a cause for worry and trepidation. She didn't answer his question as she sat, head bowed, at the foot of his bed.

"Freya. You're scared too, aren't you?"

Freya looked into his eyes, nodded, then looked back down at the floor. She knew this was bound to happen; as she'd reflected before, Abstergo was bound to try to come up with something with which to take her on, given how their Agents weren't doing very well. But in this case, being proven right did nothing to satisfy her; if anything, she had a terrible sinking feeling something bad was coming their way.

And when it did, she might not be able to stop it.

And so it was that when Rei held her, she embraced him in return. She wanted to believe, to hope against hope that things would turn out alright.

"Don't worry, Freya."

"I'll protect you, as I always have."

Rei's tone was firm, with more conviction and confidence than he actually felt. The truth was that he too had a bad feeling about things, but his awareness of how he had all but become Freya's emotional crutch compelled him to at least try to comfort her. To reassure her.

To protect her.

_I'll do what I can, at least._

_I couldn't forgive myself otherwise._

\------

_What?_

Daniel's eyes widened at what he was seeing.

_How… can this be?_

It was rather incredible, he reflected as he sat in front of his laptop in the quarters he currently shared with Pinocchio and Mancini, both of whom were sleeping very soundly. From what they knew of Regenschirm's science project, it had only one result. His departed subordinates had also told him the same thing, in their desperate pleas for backup as they were being massacred at headquarters by the monster herself.

And from what his men had told him, Project Seraph had yielded but _one_ result.

 _One_ monster.

Only _one_  Platinum Angel.

And yet…

_There are… two of them!_

The video footage, expertly acquired by both Mancini and Pinocchio, did not lie. The high magnification had rendered the resolution grainy to the point of being pixelated, but not enough to obscure what had happened in the coffee shop that afternoon a week ago.

One of them was standing beside a young man while cradling a baby in her arms, while the other, dressed in a uniform of some sort, stood exactly across her counterpart. However impossible it seemed, there was no mistaking it.

Against all odds, Regenschirm had somehow managed to create _two._

Not only that, mused Daniel, but it also seemed that the prey he'd been hunting for weeks now was not, in fact, devoid of a heart or a soul. One look at the way she cradled the child in her arms was enough to prove that, as was the way her free hand clasped that of her male companion. Ironic as it was, he knew it was no lie; by some miracle, the monster that yet had his comrades' blood on her hands had somehow grown a heart.

_Daniel, you dumbass! What about your men, huh!_

_You're not supposed to sympathize with her!_

Daniel Cross couldn't help but grimace at his weakness. Yes, he told himself, that persocom was his enemy and his prey. That wouldn't change. After all, she had his comrades' blood on her hands, and he _did_ owe it to his men to make sure their deaths would not be in vain.

The child, however, was a different story.

As was the boy.

_Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent._

The first tenet of the Assassin's Creed came to mind now. This was the one belief of the Assassins Daniel had never, and would never forsake, whether or not they were the enemy: that those who had not volunteered to fight their war should not be involved in it. Dangerous though the persocom was, those she had come to love were a different story.

_Wait…_

_Do they even know what she's done? What she's capable of?_

Apparently not; the footage had showed earlier how the persocom had unleashed her hidden blades right in front of them, and neither the young man nor the child so much as batted an eyelash at the sight.

_Well, well. So our dear little angel's a star in her very own love story now?_

As his second-in-command let out a sudden snore, Daniel snorted in mingled amusement and disgust at himself. Now, of all times, his love of trashy romance novels had decided to make itself known again. And to him, it seemed now that that persocom and the young man at her side were the star-crossed lovers of that particular tale.

_And I suppose that makes me… what, the villain?_

_This should be interesting._

By all rights, he mused, it was the persocom who was the villain. She was the one with all the blood on her hands, after all, having killed not only his elite but Regenschirm and his colleagues. Did that boy even know what his [i]girlfriend[/i] had done? Didn't he wonder at all why she acted so strangely, as if she was being hunted?

And if he did, wouldn't he want to protect her?

_That's just it!_

Daniel's face cracked into an evil grin at the idea that just hit him.

While his prey would definitely fall at his hands eventually, there were certain lines that he wouldn't cross, even if Vidic and the rest had no compunction about doing so. If nothing else, he still held fast to the first tenet of the Creed of the Order whose fall he had all but brought about.

No matter what happened to that persocom, no harm would befall either the boy or _their child._

_On the contrary, he'll likely want to thank me when it's all done._

Daniel Cross had to stop himself from laughing that uncharacteristic evil laugh that was fighting to get out.


	20. The Power to Protect

October 7th.

Freya accompanied Rei to St. Benedict's Academy as she always did, though she was again turned away by the security guards for lack of a registration. She had long ceased to find their obstinacy a bother, though; after all, she could always take her [i]alternate[/i] route.

_Nothing is true. Everything is permitted._

Despite her undying hatred for Abstergo for what they had turned her into, Freya recognized and admitted that it was thanks to the skills they'd quite literally equipped her with that she was now capable of all this. As she leapt from the gate to hang from the windowsill of a second floor classroom, she relished the delightful irony at the thought of Abstergo ultimately being laid low, possibly even buried, by its own hubris and ambition.

Nothing else could have motivated the decision to turn her into what she was now.

Even as she slowly but surely ascended towards the roof, Freya couldn't help but notice that she was well into the process of getting over her self-hatred at what she had become. She still had her periodic lapses into contemplative silence, but she no longer dwelled on her status as Abstergo's so-called Platinum Angel. Instead, she focused on happy thoughts, on her loved ones and on her recent experiences.

And on a certain _someone_ in particular…

_The best revenge, as they say, is living well._

_Though hanging them with their own rope would be a close second._

Finally, Freya reached the rooftops of St. Anselm's building, where she knew most of Rei's classes took place. She firmly gripped the edge of the roof before dropping down and then clambering up on the third floor ledge.

But as she made to enter the classroom…

"Freya!"

Freya turned to her left and saw Shana, distress written all over her face, running frantically at her. She tilted her head to the right in a gesture imbibed from Rei, wondering what could possibly have put her in her current state.

"Oh hi, Shana," she began, the smile fading from her face as she took in the look on Shana's. "Is something the matter?"

She couldn't explain it, but she felt a faint rush of fear at seeing the stricken expression on the girl Rei affectionately called his 'mother'. The way she looked, dangerously close to freaking out, didn't help either. Her default modes switched from 'bubbly and lively' to 'outraged and positively terrifying', so seeing her like this was not only new, it was rather… scary.

Nor was Freya particularly reassured when Shana took her by the hand to the stairs, where a small crowd had gathered.

_No…!_

Even from afar, Freya recognized the spiky black hair visible she could just make out from gaps in the crowd. The inspiring face was equally impossible to miss, though right now it was contorted in pain, with some blood running down from the right temple. And when she got closer…

There was no doubt about it.

Freya either didn't notice or didn't care even as her scream caused everyone there to stare at her. None of that mattered to her right now, and she could care less what they'd be saying behind their backs.

Right now, all Freya cared about was the one she cradled in her lap.

And as she caressed him, Freya swore that if something happened to him, those who'd hurt Rei would _die._

\------

"What…?"

Rei woke with a start in his school's infirmary.

"Where… is this?"

He tried to sit up, but his body felt as though it were being pinned down by leaden weights. Additionally, he flinched as the back of his head pulsed with pain, which itself was compounded by the sheer weight of the bandages wrapped around it –

Rei let out a weak grown as someone embraced him, pressing him against her chest as she forced him back to bed. No sooner had that someone released him than he opened his eyes to see who it was…

"…Freya?"

She was smiling at him the way she always did, but right now, the purity of her smile was somewhat marred by the tears streaking down her cheeks as she regarded him. From the look on her face, it was as if she'd feared that he might never wake up again.

 _Something_  had happened to him, but what? All he remembered was walking up the stairs earlier today on his way to his morning class –

"Why… are you crying, Freya? What happened to me?"

Rei was aware of how those two questions were making him come across as rather dim, but answers were something he both wanted and needed right now. As it was, the pain in his head and the weight of those bandages were ruining his day, as was his mere presence here; he at least deserved to know [i]what the hell happened to him,[/i] right?

"Rei… you don't remember?" Freya asked, sniffling. "You fell down a flight of stairs. I was afraid you'd never wake up…"

At this, Freya was reduced to sobbing incoherently atop Rei, who absently patted her back in order to comfort her. He wasn't being conceited or anything, but he didn't blame her for reacting that way. Hell, if their roles were reversed, he'd probably be just as torn up over it as Freya was over his accident.

Just then, the door opened ever so slightly; not quite wide enough to make a sound or to arouse Freya's attention, but wide enough that Rei could see the eye that peered into the room at him.

"Oh, yeah. Freya…? I need to ask a favour."

She obeyed, sniffling as her wide, bleary amber eyes found him.

"Could you… attend the rest of my classes today?" Rei requested weakly. "Let Shana and the others know I'm alright. Don't worry," he added, heading off the protests he knew she was going to make next. "It'll only be for three hours… you can come back for me after."

Freya nodded slowly. Rei got the feeling that she really didn't want to leave him there, and again, he knew he'd feel the same way for her had their roles been reversed. The thing was, he didn't want his friends to worry about him too much, and besides, it might help Freya get her mind off things. It wasn't like he was going to die or anything.

Finally, after much hesitation on her part, Freya left to attend the remainder of today's classes.

Around 15 minutes after she'd gone, someone new entered the room. One look in the newcomer's eyes told Rei who the one from earlier was.

"I'm glad to see you're alright, Mr. Mikage."

He was of Caucasian origin, with dirty blond hair and pale eyes that spoke of extensive experience living a hard life. His build was lean and athletic, the type of person who'd easily become the star player in any sport he saw fit to excel at. The way the man carried himself, meanwhile, was familiar to Rei; it reminded him of how his brother-in-law usually was.

"My name's Daniel Cross. It's quite a pleasure to meet you..."

\------

Freya's face was still streaked with tears as sat with Shana in their classroom.

She hardly listened to the lecture; it was a waste of time, seeing as there was nothing the professor was telling them that she didn't already have programmed into her. She could easily tutor Rei on her own, and even then, considering how he practically ate books up, he'd probably not even [i]need[/i] tutoring. Indeed, had it not been a direct request on his part, she would have stayed glued to his bedside.

Freya felt like slapping those guards around right about now. It was indirectly their fault this happened, seeing as they forced her to take that alternate route for reasons known only to them. Had she been beside Rei at the time of his accident, it might never had happened, and if someone was behind it, that person would have been sleeping with the worms by now.

As it was, she felt a very powerful urge to inflict that end on those guards.

The only problem was that Rei wouldn't approve.

"Freya?"

"Earth to Freya, please respond."

She cast a sidelong glance at the idiot Asakura, who grinned at her in a way that made her want to tear his head right off. She wouldn't at all be surprised if it had been him who'd done that to Rei, actually, but she hoped for his sake that he wasn't. As with those security guards, she had half a mind to follow through on those violent thoughts of hers–

"Ms. Mikage?"

 _Those_ words, not to mention the person who spoke them, were what snapped Freya back to reality. All eyes were upon her as she stood up, looking the professor squarely in the eye as she did so. She expected a reprimand, and readied what would be her retort –

"…Is he alright?"

The sincerity caught Freya off-guard. Normally, the name by which the professor had called her would have elicited a violent blush from her, but right now, she was too worried about Rei to care. Regardless, she forced herself to maintain eye contact and to project an outward façade of calm.

"…Yes, sir."

Even then, the lone tear that rolled down her left cheek betrayed exactly how Freya felt.

\------

"My name is Daniel Cross. It's a pleasure to meet you, even if the circumstances could have been better."

Rei felt pain shoot through his neck as he tried to tilt his head to the side, much to Daniel's mild amusement. "You shouldn't move around so much, Rei. Not after what happened to you. You're lucky you didn't break anything, actually."

Rei couldn't help but crack a grin at that. "…I see. How do you know me, sir?" It wasn't that he distrusted this man, but they'd just met, after all, and the way he was acting suggested a sense of familiarity.

"'Daniel', not 'sir'," he laughed, grinning back. "It's okay, kid, I won't hurt you. I happen to know your brother-in-law very well, too. And for that matter," he added, "I happen to know all about your persocom as well."

Strictly speaking, thought Daniel, what he said was true. While Rei's persocom [i]was[/i] his prey, Rei himself was innocent and would not be harmed in any way. In fact, not only would he not be harmed, he'd even come out of this better than he was coming in.

And Daniel did indeed know Lorenzo Auditore, as well. Not only was he directly descended from one of the Assassin Order's most prominent Mentors, he also happened to have derailed many of Abstergo's operations in the past. In terms of priority, Auditore was the third most wanted among the Assassins. Only William and Desmond Miles – the acting Mentor and his son – were higher than on the list.

"What about my persocom?" Rei said guardedly. Whoever he was, this Daniel guy was well-informed. He had connections, and had likely done his homework on top of that. If he knew that his sister was secretly married, and that there was more to Freya than met the eye, he was clearly something else.

But could Rei really trust him?

"Look, kid," Daniel added as Rei opened his mouth, having guessed what was on the youth's mind, "I know this'll be hard to believe, but I'm here to help you."

Again, this was true; what he was about to offer the youth was very much beneficial to him. "Some very bad men are after your persocom. I know she's a badass killer robot and all, but don't you want the power to protect? Don't you want to be able to protect your loved ones yourself?"

"I know how you feel, kid. Once upon a time I was like you. There was this chick I knew way back when… I once called her a 'hot killer ninja', but now that I really think of it, even those words don't do her any justice."

Yet again, reflected Daniel, what he'd spoken really _was_ true. Strictly speaking, none of the things he'd told Rei were lies.

First and foremost, he'd already cast himself in the role of the villain in their love story – though of course he was the hero of his own little drama. He likewise conceded, however grudgingly, that the persocom was, in fact, a badass killer robot – she had, after all, been the first to inflict such heavy casualties on his team.

After this incident, Daniel was sure that Rei wasn't feeling too good about himself, either. Usually it was the guy who defended his mate, but things were different in this case, given how he was just a college student and his girlfriend happened to be a killer robot. He privately thought that the youth had nothing to be ashamed of, but then it would be one thing to know that, and another to like it.

As for the 'hot killer ninja'…

_Hannah…_

"Think about it, Rei," Daniel spoke again after several moments of silence. "I've been there before you, so believe me when I say that that feeling of uselessness really is awful. I could help you fix that, if only you'd let me."

Rei opened his mouth to speak, but Daniel cut him off with a gesture.

"You don't need to tell me your answer now," Daniel said as he turned to leave the room. After all, such a decision wasn't one to be taken lightly.

"When you've decided, you know how to reach me," he added as he pointed at Rei's cellphone on the bedside table, just before closing the door on his way out.

And as he made his way out of the infirmary, Daniel wore a satisfied smile on his face.

He really _was_  looking forward to having Rei Mikage on board.

_Think it over, kid…_


	21. Recent Twists and Turns

Rei reflected at the recent twists and turns his life had gone through.

For the longest time, he'd been an unremarkable 19 year old, going to college and screwing around with friends on the side. His brain was top notch, but his grades were barely above average as he couldn't be bothered excelling in school. No girlfriend since birth, either – he couldn't be bothered, and he'd been left jaded by the one girl he was actually interested in.

In short, he had never stood out among the many other young men who lived in this big city.

At least, until _she_  showed up.

Rei stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom, chuckling to himself at the thought of her. Freya's arrival at their home, and in his life, hadn't so much as changed it forever as it _turned everything upside down._

The time had been when he'd disappear from the house at night to hit the local internet shop, thrashing the competition and making money off of them. He used to get into fist fights with Asakura as well, and while he often gave as good as he got, Shana often doled out those trademark slaps of hers as her own brand of punishment.

But even Shana, however seriously she took her self-appointed role as the 'mother' of their group, could do little to persuade him to turn away from his decadent lifestyle. Eventually she'd given it up as a bad job; although she still punished Rei when he went too far, Shana had, for the most part, accepted him for who he was.

The chastisements Ceres had subjected him to were marginally more successful, especially when she invoked his responsibility as Oyuki's uncle, and he did tone down some of his most undesirable habits and affectations. But even then, all of them, including Rei himself, were convinced that he wasn't likely to straighten up anytime soon.

And then, one fateful day, _she_ came into his life.

_Freya._

It was only when they took her in that he'd finally begun to understand what Ceres had been trying to tell him. Granted, Oyuki was his beloved niece, and Freya was, at the time, just a persocom that they found passed out just outside their house. Even so, it was _Freya_ who Rei had taken care of himself. Even during her early days as part of their little family, he'd already sensed that she was somehow… broken, haunted by repressed trauma.

In effect, Freya had sparked a change in him, one just as real as the one in her.

Even as Rei learned of her dark past, he was certain that Freya's place was with them now. It still wasn't all rainbows and butterflies – he still had bad dreams some nights where he witnessed her lethality firsthand – but he'd committed himself to this path, and he wasn't about to go astray. Even then, he knew full well that some very bad men were after Freya, and so they'd sworn to protect each other.

_Easier said than done, though._

Rei knew his course. He knew perfectly well she wouldn't go down so easily, but even then, he refused to stand by and wait for another attempt by Freya's former owners at repossessing her. Anyone seeking to take her against her will would do so only after stepping over his dead body, because there was no way he'd just move aside for them and leave her to her fate.

The problem was that those words didn't mean much, considering his current state. His girlfriend –

 _Wait a minute. Since when did I think of Freya as my_ girlfriend?

Rei wasted no time ditching that train of thought. The point was that Freya, regardless of what she was to him, was a superpowered robot assassin. Frightening and brutal as it was, she exuded a kind of grace and poise even as she mercilessly cut down the ones responsible for turning her into a mechanized angel of death. Though her parents surely hadn't intended it, she now channeled her mythological namesake very well.

Rei, on the other hand...

_I'm not strong enough._

He knew and had accepted it, but neither knowledge nor acceptance helped to make Rei feel better.

As he was now, Rei was not only weak, but _powerless._

It was like that guy Daniel had said; it was normally the man who protected the woman, but in this scenario, there wasn't much he could do. Freya was the deadliest persocom in the world, and he was but a mortal man. He'd sworn to uphold his oath or die trying, but more likely than not, it'd end up being the latter.

The thought of being powerless to protect his loved ones at all left a bitter taste in Rei's mouth.

_I could help you fix that, if only you'd let me._

_Don't you want to be able to protect your loved ones yourself?_

Those words came back to him now. Rei recalled the aura that seemed to emanate from the older man: one of toughness and strength, one that spoke of more than just a passing familiarity with the harder and more painful facts of life. He'd seen his share of battles, and had tasted, and survived the world's worst.

Clearly, then, the power of which Daniel spoke of was one he could give him.

So why was Rei still having his doubts?

_Freya..._

For what was possibly the first time ever, Freya had gone into standby mode, and was sleeping peacefully beside him. She hadn't even wanted to do so, at first, but it was he who convinced her that she'd earned a break after everything that had happened. If nothing else, thought Rei, she looked positively adorable with the smile on her face.

After a while, Rei turned away from her, to the clock on his bedside table: 10:39 PM. Slowly he stood up and put on what he called his night outfit: a black hoody, matching cargo pants and sneakers.

_A little fresh air would be nice._

_Hell, I haven't stopped by at 'that' place in a while._

Rei knelt at Freya's side of the bed after dressing up, gently caressing her face as he looked tenderly at her.

_I won't be long, Freya. Don't worry, I'll be fine._

Finally, after planting a gentle kiss on her forehead, Rei swiftly and silently made his way out of the house.

\------

At a certain restaurant in the commercial district, Daniel sat together with his comrades Pinocchio and Mancini as they waited for their orders to arrive.

Actually, it was his entire team that Daniel treated to dinner tonight, giving them money to buy their own food and then dispersing them all over the district in twos and in threes. They _still_  hadn't accomplished their goal of capturing or eliminating the persocom, but they'd made progress, and _that,_ at least, was something.

After all, thought Daniel as he brought a glass of water to his lips, if making contact with her _boyfriend_ didn't count as progress, he didn't know what did.

It truly _did_ boggle his mind to fathom how those two had gotten together. For one thing, not only was lethality _not_ usually something young men looked for in potential girlfriends, it wasn't exactly common to hook up with persocoms, however cute, pretty or otherwise attractive they might have been. As a matter of fact, there was a time when persocom lovers were openly mocked and derided by society.

But even he, Daniel, could see that the thing between his target and Rei was real. He'd seen her all but get in the face of their school physician as she carried him, bridal style, into the infirmary, demanding that he be treated right away. The way they looked when he took a peek into the ward really wasn't unlike how a young married couple would have acted, either.

That there was _something_ between them was obvious, and it certainly served to complicate the situation.

Whether or not he meant for it to happen, he, Daniel, had betrayed the Assassin Order when he killed the Mentor. And in the process, he had irrevocably alienated himself from those he once called comrades. But even then, he still took to heart some of the things the Assassin's Creed stood for, especially the part about not killing or involving innocents.

While justice demanded that the persocom be eliminated for her crimes, Rei Mikage was another matter entirely. As far as Daniel and his team were concerned, he was just a kid who happened to be involved in something he didn't understand. It was fortunate for the boy that it was he, Daniel, and his team, who were assigned to hunt down Abstergo's Platinum Angel. Vidic and the others surely wouldn't have been as forgiving.

Of course, he _did_ mean that entire business about training him in their ways; in fact, from their first impression, Daniel suspected that the boy would have made for a good Agent, if ever they were able to recruit him to their side. Rei Mikage possessed not only strength of character, but also the will to use it.

More than anything else, though, the important thing was to get him out of the way when he and his team – or, even worse, _their latest science project,_  thought Daniel disgustedly – moved in for the kill.

Just then, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Snapping back to reality, Daniel donned his wireless headset and took the call.

"Cross here. What's up?"

He listened, eyes growing narrower with each line. It seemed that, somewhere else in the district, things were getting to be quite interesting…

"Understood. I'll be right there."

Daniel stood up abruptly, much to the confusion of his comrades who'd already begun eating. Both Pinocchio and Mancini knew from the look on his face that it was serious, but what could it possibly be at this time of night?

"I'll be right back, Matt," Daniel addressed Mancini specifically as he left their table and headed to the exit. Pinocchio likewise looked up at his superior, puzzled at this abrupt decision on his part. "Just try not to hog the food, alright?"

"A friend of ours needs me just now."

With that, Daniel Cross made haste to where that particular 'friend' was waiting.

He'd begun to like the kid, after all; it wouldn't do to just abandon him like that.

_And besides, don't actions speak louder than words?_

\------

"Well, well. Fancy meeting you here, Mikage."

Rei looked around and saw that he had been surrounded. He didn't understand it; back when he was gambling, going out late and generally making an ass of himself, he'd always managed to get around unscathed. Some of his defeated opponents did talk of inflicting immense bodily harm on him, but that was all it was, just talk. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before.

And yet, just when he'd reformed and turned over a new leaf, _this_  had to happen.

"Aren't you Asakura's brother?" Rei addressed the guy in front of him, the one wearing shades and wielding a large butterfly knife. He thought to himself that he sounded much braver than he actually felt, but then he _was_ being accosted by a gang of delinquents with knives and brass knuckles. He chuckled to himself as he felt a macabre sort of amusement at this recent development.

"I suppose he'd need a backup plan after knocking me down the stairs didn't work…"

In truth, Rei didn't know that. It was a gamble on his part, his own way of telling if Asakura was responsible for his little 'accident' a few days ago. Jackass though he was, surely Asakura wasn't –?

But as Rei said that, the blood appeared to drain from the face of his personal tormentor's older brother. Smiling grimly, he shook his head at the revelation that he was right after all.

"…I see."

"Why though? In the first place, we aren't even supposed to be enemies!"

This one, on the other hand, was true. Their conflict was not a result of anything that happened between them. Rather, it was Asakura's buddy with whom Rei first butted heads in the course of his gambling spree. He, Rei, had beaten him in one of their games, and the pot he got was enough for him to get new clothes for himself.

This didn't sit well with them, predictably enough. Not only had the match been recorded for their peers' future viewing, Rei had all but taken their words and forced it back down their throats.

"I wonder, Mikage," Asakura's brother sneered. "Why're you out this late at night on your own? Could it be," he asked aloud in mock wonder, "you broke up with your girlfriend, didn't you?"

The way Freya was mentioned set his nerves on edge. It was bad enough that everyone and their mother seemed to see right through him, and even worse that he had that voice at the back of his head join in as well. But for this _jackass_ to mention her in front of him…

Rei tensed up, preparing for the fight to inevitably break out.

And then –

"Yeah, well," said a new voice from somewhere above them. "I'm sure that's more than can be said for _you._ "

Rei jumped back, just in time for Daniel Cross to drop in on the scene and land right in front of him. The older man stood up and cast a glance at him before giving a thumbs-up.

"Relax, kid."

"Run along home if you want to, I got this."


	22. Inner Turmoil

"Relax, kid. Run along home if you want to, I got this."

_You filth._

Daniel Cross couldn't help but narrow his eyes in disgust at the punks surrounding Rei and himself. Even leaving out the fact that they were ganging up on someone who was all too obviously defenseless, their mere presence here indicated that they went around at night doing all sorts of crap. And they'd obviously thought Rei was a good target without his persocom around to protect him.

_Opportunists, huh?_

Not that he was one to talk. The Assassin's Creed that he took to heart even now, decades after having irreversibly severed himself from them, had one maxim at its core: _Nothing is true. Everything is permitted._  There was always more than one way to go about things, but once one had embarked on a certain path, he would then have to live with the consequences - good, or bad. And if these guys wanted an unfair fight, then he, Daniel, would be happy to oblige them.

"Hey now, what're you waiting for?" he called out the delinquents surrounding him. "A written invitation? Or could it be that you're all a bunch of stinking _pussies?_ "

_About time._

Daniel anticipated the move even before it began. So it was just as he thought; rats were dangerous en masse, but a rat on its own was nearly harmless. Somewhere down the line, the pieces of monkey excrement before him had deluded themselves into thinking that they could hide their incompetence and ineptitude behind strength in numbers.

_To a certain extent, they can._

_But the thing is, it's_  me they're _fucking with now._

One of the thugs charged, drawing back his left fist as he prepared to score a devastating hit with his brass knuckles. Rei put his hands up in a guard, only to be practically thrown by Daniel against the wall of a nearby building. He hadn't put too much force into it, but even then, the youth nearly landed hard on his backside as he hit the wall.

Barely managing to not fall over, Rei watched the older man duck step to the outside of the blow, simultaneously grabbing his attacker's left wrist and right hip to toss him at his comrades.

"This doesn't seem fair, now, does it?" Daniel noted conversationally to their assailants. "There's seven of you, and only one of me."

He laughed at this, a boyish laugh that exuded bravado and confidence in himself and his abilities. While such behaviour on his part might have been called suicidal overconfidence, one look at him was enough to tell Rei that he could more than walk the talk. The feral grin on his face conveyed nothing but exhilaration and excitement on his part.

"Would it be even if I only used one arm?"

At first this came of as a bluff to the delinquents, a mere boast. Didn't he see the odds stacked against him? But no sooner had these thoughts formed in their heads, than they were baffled when Daniel really did take off the right sleeve of his jacket and pinned his arm to his side. This done, he zipped his jacket back up in such a way that only his left arm would be usable.

The gang's leader ground their teeth at the sight. So this bastard was mocking them, huh…?

"Die, asshole!"

One of the thugs tried to blindside Daniel, brandishing his knife threateningly, but he expected this, sidestepping the blow and crushing his throat with a devastating heel kick. Another made his move right then, but a rising block from Daniel ensured that the attempt at a punch hit nothing but air.

_Idiot._

Then, before he could pull away, Daniel bashed his head against his opponent's chin, disorienting him, before releasing his hidden blade and driving it straight through the man's neck.

_He's just like Freya…_

The familiarity of Daniel's fighting style was not lost on Rei, nor was the weapon mounted on his arm. Sure, Daniel did have his own quirks – such as his apparent preference of humiliating and toying with opponents – but even someone like Rei knew what he was seeing. For the most part, he fought pretty much the same way Freya did, and even shared her weapon preference.

"Well, what now? You're the only one left, buddy."

Eventually only Asakura's older brother was left, his lackeys all lying incapacitated or dead around him. And as he made his own desperate lunge, Daniel dodged lazily to the inside of the blow, before nailing him with a punch to the gut that knocked him unconscious.

And when the dust had cleared, Daniel walked over to where Rei sat and watched the melee unfold, before offering a hand to help him up.

"You alright, kid?"

Rei nodded, albeit absently, as he grabbed Daniel's hand and was pulled to his feet. He was still in awe at what he had seen, though one could hardly blame him. He'd just watched a man beat the crap out of a gang of delinquents, all despite having deprived himself the use of one of his arms. If that wasn't awesome, he didn't know what was.

In Rei's book, Daniel Cross was, as of this moment, a certified _badass_.

And if he was willing to teach, Rei was willing to learn.

Just then, both their stomachs emitted identical growls of hunger, somewhat ruining the moment.

"C'mon, kid, let's get you something to eat. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

\------

It was nearly midnight when Rei set about on his way home, parting ways with Daniel and his crew after the midnight dinner they shared. He was taken by surprise, too; like their leader, they were a surprisingly fun and personable bunch. Mancini reminded him strongly of his brother-in-law, while Pinocchio seemed to be fond of gaming just as much as he was. It seemed incredible that these guys shared Daniel's fighting skills, but Rei took his word for it.

In fact, if he was to be believed, there were more of them, and they all lived in one compound on top of that.

_You'll get to meet the rest of the bunch, too, if you join us._

He'd been sceptical when Daniel first made that offer, but after tonight, Rei's doubt had begun to evaporate very fast. While he lacked some of the grace and poise Freya displayed while fighting, he was every bit as deadly and lethal as she was. And the crazy thing was that Daniel had told him that he, Rei, had potential to not only become one of them, but even the best of them.

_Don't worry about school, either. I'll use my connections to make sure you get high marks._

As he walked home, Rei had to admit to himself that he was sorely tempted by the offer.

_With power like that…_

_What then? Do I accept?_

The answer would most definitely be a yes… or at least, it should have been. Yet Rei, determined as he was to become more than just an emotional protector to Freya, knew full well that none of the ones closest to him would be likely to be amused at such a decision on his part.

If he were to just vanish, thought Rei as he quietly snuck back into the house, they might think he'd been abducted. Even worse, they might think he'd abandoned them, and he didn't want that.

_What now, then?_

When he got to his bedroom, he saw that things were exactly as he'd left them. Freya still lay on the bed in the exact same position he'd left her in, and the nightclothes he'd changed out of still hung from his closet door. Rei breathed a sigh of relief; it was a good thing his disappearance hadn't been noticed.

 _I'm home_ , Rei whispered to Freya, before repeating his earlier action and kissing her on the forehead.

Finally, Rei changed out of his street clothes, taking care not to make any noise as he did so, before lying down gently on the bed.

He stared up at the ceiling for a while longer, contemplating Daniel and his offer, before sleep finally claimed him.

\------

_Wake up already, you idiot. It's morning._

Rei silenced his inner voice and told it in no uncertain terms to shut up. He knew it was his own fault he hadn't gotten enough sleep, seeing as he'd snuck out in the middle of the night, and he wasn't about to argue with that. But even then, he wanted to stay in bed a little while longer; he _did_  have a lot on his mind, after all, and he wanted to be able to think of it in the comfort of his own bed.

"Just a little bit longer, gimme a break…" he slurred as he rolled over to face the wall.

Try as he might, Rei couldn't take his mind off of Daniel's offer. He was being asked to stay with them in their compound for at least a month, if only so he could at least learn the basics of their rather esoteric fighting style. When he questioned why, Daniel pointed out that the moves he'd pulled off in that skirmish were harder to pull off than they looked. Even a month, he said, would be enough only for the basics, if at all.

Rei himself didn't have any problems with it, but he highly doubted his loved ones would be as receptive to such an arrangement. His sister wouldn't be very happy, nor would Ceres. For that matter, Oyuki wouldn't take her uncle's sudden disappearance very well, either.

And the less he thought of how Freya would react, the better.

_Wake up, Rei!_

For some reason, his inner voice was _very_ persistent today – unusually so, in fact, much to his chagrin. He knew it wasn't exactly obedient, given how it kept tormenting him about feelings he may or may not have felt for Freya, but right now it was being so obnoxious it wasn't even funny anymore. Rei grunted as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Right now, all he wanted was to lay in his bed.

He didn't feel like doing anything.

At all.

"Rei, you have to wake up, please!"

At _her_  voice, Rei wasted no time getting up. No sooner had he sat up in bed than he was promptly knocked back down in [i]her[/i] embrace. It was Freya, and the way she was shaking – and, for that matter, the tremor in her voice earlier – suggested some level of distress.

"Err, good morning to you, too, Freya," he began awkwardly, "What's wrong, though! I thought we were clear that I wasn't gonna die?"

At this, Freya let go immediately, visibly gathering herself in front of him. Clearly there was something bothering her, and whatever it was, she felt it important enough to rouse him from his sleep. Rei waited for her to say something.

"I had a bad dream, Rei," she began, slowly. "I woke up in my dream to find you disappeared forever…"

Outwardly, Rei reassured her, categorically saying that there was absolutely no way in hell that dream of hers would never come true. With great effort, he told her that he cared for her too much to just up and leave the way she'd just described.

"And besides," he added, "Between you, my sister and Ceres, there'd be nothing left of me if I did something like that."

Freya flashed him that beautiful smile of hers, so he smiled back.

In reality, though, Rei couldn't help but feel a certain disquiet and guilt at what Freya had just confided in him. Though he knew perfectly well that she had no way of knowing what was going on in his head, the fact remained that her words hit it a little too close for comfort. She gripped his shoulders tightly so that her amber orbs were locked onto his own amethyst ones.

"Promise me, Rei," Freya practically pleaded with him. "Don't ever vanish like that, okay?"

Rei hesitated. There was no way she'd understand if he came clean and admitted to her that he was, in fact, contemplating something along those lines, even if he did tell her it was so he could protect her. She'd be devastated if ever he were to disappear the way she described, and he wasn't sure he could handle that.

On the other hand, given the _exact words_ of her request...

"...Yes, dear Freya. I promise."

Rei squeezed his eyes shut as Freya happily embraced him, thankful that she was unaware of his inner turmoil.

_If anything should happen, I won't be breaking that promise..._

_...Right?_


	23. Her Worst Nightmare

"Master, I've got an update for you."

Lorenzo, who was about to access the Animus and begin tonight's session, sat back up. It was Demeter, holding a tray of coffee that she set down on the table right beside him. Normally she'd save updates for after his session, so if she brought this to his attention now it must've been important.

He looked up at her and nodded, a signal for her to proceed with her report.

"Our comrades report that the traitor Daniel Cross has been spotted in the area."

The expression on Lorenzo's face hardened at that. He knew all about the man, alright. Daniel Cross was a former Assassin, one of their most promising. He hadn't been with them long, but even then their Mentor had considered choosing him as his personal apprentice and eventual successor. Not only that, he'd even met Cross face-to-face in their headquarters at Dubai, which was saying something considering that no one at the time was even sure if the Mentor really _existed._

Unfortunately, for his generosity, the Mentor was repaid with treachery.

It was still a mystery to them how it had happened; they'd gone over his entire history with a fine-toothed comb the moment he'd been taken to one of their training facilities in the United States, and there was no hint the man was involved with the Templars. Hell, he'd first been found about to kill a man he _thought_ was one. Likewise, according to the operative who'd been closest to him, Cross had never come across as anything more as a loyal and determined member of their Order.

And yet, somehow, he'd turned out to be some kind of Manchurian Agent. Not quite unbelievable, considering one of their own had been turned against them before, but all the more disappointing and saddening for it.

_Oh well._

The sound of someone knocking on the door recalled Lorenzo to the present.

_Speak of the devil. She's here._

"Hi there, Demi. It's been a while."

When Demeter opened it, she was greeted by a petite, brown-eyed woman with long, red hair.

"Good evening, Hannah," Lorenzo greeted, smiling as he turned to face the newcomer. "Come on in, I assume you're tired."

Hannah Mueller stepped into the flat, gratefully taking a seat on the couch overlooking the balcony as she took off her jacket. From the look on her face, she was clearly tired and exhausted, though he had a feeling her weariness was more than just physical in nature.

As he looked at her, Lorenzo reflected on how she'd changed. It wasn't just entirely due to the passage of time, he knew. Cross' betrayal had affected all of them, given how Abstergo came down hard on the entire Order not long after, but she'd probably felt it most acutely. The Hannah he'd first met had been a much warmer person, as opposed to the somewhat guarded woman that now sat in his presence.

"Nice to see you too, Lorenzo," she greeted him shortly. "Is it true? Daniel's in the area?"

Her use of the traitor's first name wasn't lost on him, either. In the entire Order, it was Hannah who knew him best, and it was Hannah who was closest to him. Rumors had even gone around that the two had been in a relationship of some sort, and indeed she'd been spotted coming out of his cabin more than once. Being the first to learn of his betrayal must've been painful for her.

Nevertheless, Lorenzo had to be honest.

"…Yes, Hannah," he admitted reluctantly, unsurprised at the way her expression hardened. "He's been spotted in…"

"…St. Benedict's Academy?"

He trailed off as he read the words in front of him. It couldn't be, surely not –?

_Son of a bitch._

Lorenzo felt a bucket of ice cascade into his stomach as he stared at his laptop, still not quite believing the report their comrade had sent him. St. Benedict's was where Rei, his brother-in-law, went to college. It could have been coincidence, he knew, but he wasn't willing to take a gamble where his family was concerned.

_Maybe I should have Ceres watch his back._

"I see," Hannah nodded. Though she did her utmost to hide it, Lorenzo could still see a hint of sadness in her posture; the way her head was bowed easily gave it away, as did the manner in which she had her arms folded across her chest. After all these years, she still hadn't completely gotten over his betrayal.

"What could Daniel be doing there, though? I highly doubt there's anything there Abstergo's interested in… unless…"

Lorenzo looked at her, puzzled. "Unless?" he prompted, somewhat dreading the answer he would receive.

"Remember their so-called Project Seraph? Abstergo tried creating a superpowered persocom assassin of its own, but she went rogue and practically [i]murdered[/i] her way out of the Far Eastern branch," Hannah explained, recalling the information brought to her by one of their insiders. "She had a mind of her own, and obviously enough, she didn't like what they did to her."

Lorenzo shook his head at that. He'd heard of Project Seraph, and he knew that Abstergo knew all about the existence of combat capable persocoms. Hell, they'd learned the hard way what they were capable of. But then, capable as Demeter and Ceres were, their enhancements weren't quite as ambitious or extensive as compared to those possessed by what they had created.

It was true, thought Lorenzo; the durability of his beloved twins did surpass that of ordinary persocoms, and they _did_ have lengthened operation time thanks to the improved energy batteries they both possessed. But if what the information he'd received was anything to go by, Abstergo's so-called Platinum Angel had a prototype accelerator built into her, was near-indestructible, and apparently utilized an ultracompact nuclear reactor that could be overloaded should she choose to self-detonate.

Even Lorenzo, a veteran of the Assassin Order, couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine at the thought, fleeting though it was. Abstergo had clearly intended her to defeat entire armies on her own, considering the raw destructive potential she possessed; in that light, it was a good thing for them that she'd gone rogue.

"And from what our spies have told us," Hannah went on after around a minute had passed, "Daniel's the one assigned to deal with her."

Lorenzo fell silent once again, going over the significance of what he'd just learned. "And where's she now?"

He couldn't help but notice the hesitation written on Hannah's face as she opened her mouth once more. "Well… according to the very last report, she was taken in by a family…"

Ceres did mention that Rei now had a persocom of his own, and that he was very fond of her…

_Could it be?_

\------

"He's hiding something, isn't he?"

Freya looked up at Ceres as she was setting the table for dinner. The bluenette's perceptiveness never ceased to amaze her; just days ago, she, Ceres, had confronted her over her feelings for Rei. Of course she'd have to have noticed that he was acting rather strangely over the past couple of days, having become unusually quiet ever since his accident at school.

"…Yeah," Freya replied after a long silence. "I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago, and it seemed he'd gone out somewhere."

Freya did bring this up with Rei, telling him of a nightmare she had. As a persocom, she didn't exactly have _dreams,_ but if she did, that would probably be her worst nightmare. Besides, given how she'd done her utmost not to think of his disappearance as she laid there, it may as well have been a bad dream.

_Promise me, Rei. Don't ever vanish like that, okay?_

She couldn't help but feel scared as she recalled his reaction when she'd confided in him. Not only that, his hesitation when she'd extracted that promise out of him was itself far from reassuring.

"It's like he hasn't been himself lately. Like he's being manipulated, or something."

For her part, Ceres was startled at what she'd just heard. It wasn't the first time Rei had done something like that, but it hadn't happened in quite a while now, not since they took Freya in. It was part of the reason Ceres had warmed up to her so quickly – that she, Freya, had somehow gotten him to change for the better.

"I see," Ceres nodded thoughtfully. "What about you, Freya? Do you have secrets of your own, too?"

Freya said nothing. She had a feeling she knew where this was going, but decided to wait for it first. From the way Ceres brought it up, she'd been putting it off for a while.

"Like those hidden blades you've got," Ceres jerked her head at the bracers Freya was wearing as she placed the lid on a pot of food she'd laid on the dining table. "Those aren't exactly common, now are they?"

Without waiting for a reply, the Mikage family's retainer stood up straight, light streaking across her eyes as she and Freya interfaced with each other.

\------

_"What are you exactly, Freya? Does he know?"_

_Freya responded in the affirmative. She recalled that night where she unburdened herself of her secret, how she'd fully expected Rei to banish her – and those words he'd told her. And of course, she clearly remembered the way she'd embraced him that night, the relief and joy she'd felt._

_Drawing strength from that memory, Freya steeled herself as she told Ceres her story._

_Ceres felt for her fellow persocom, not blaming her one bit even as she recounted the massacre she'd precipitated at Abstergo's Far Eastern branch. Though no one in this household but her mistress knew about it, Ceres herself was a combat capable model, with enhancements that granted her capabilities far above and beyond any normal persocom._

_But even then, she and her sister had been created that way. Regardless of her lack of fondness for the tasks that had once been put to her, Ceres could never truly despise the life she had first known. Besides, neither her master nor her mistress had ever treated her with anything but respect and even love._

_Freya, on the other hand, was created a normal persocom. She'd died once already, she said, only to wake up in a cold laboratory with all those upgrades built into her against her will. Not only that, the first thing she'd been told upon her 'resurrection' was that she was brought back as a killing machine._

_In that light, her murderous fit of rage wasn't that surprising. Ceres reflected that she wouldn't like it very much, either, if she'd been tampered with against her will – especially if the one responsible wasn't even her master._

_Somehow, Freya had found her way to them. Her mistress had come to trust her, and even more incredibly, Oyuki adored her just as much as she did Ceres herself. That was an achievement in and of itself, considering how the child usually was around people outside their family._

_And as her thoughts turned toward Rei, Ceres smirked inwardly. There was no need to guess how he felt for Freya. He'd been the first Freya had told of her secret, and he hadn't run away screaming, now had he? If anything, it served to bring them closer to each other._

_Still, Ceres needed to confirm something. She thought she already knew the answer, but she wanted to get it straight from Freya herself._

_"Tell me, Freya," Ceres asked. "Do you love Rei? Because I for one can tell how he feels about you."_

_Which was literally true, as far as Ceres was concerned. It was all too obvious from the way they were together, and most of all, the way he unconsciously clasped Freya's hand while they were out was a dead giveaway._

_"Yes, I do!" she answered forcefully, without even the slightest hint of hesitation. "More than anything else! Can't you tell, Ceres? I wouldn't be worrying so much about him otherwise!"_

_Ceres wasn't surprised as she heard the answer she already knew Freya would give._

_"I see. Take care of him, then. I'd hate it if something happened to either of you."_

_"Platinum Angel or not, I'll personally end you if you hurt him in any way."_

Satisfied with the answers to her questions, Ceres severed their connection. She decided that she'd have to have a word with Rei later.


	24. Because I Love You

Nightfall.

The commercial district was bustling with activity, having come alive at sundown as it always did. Teenaged schoolgirls frequented the many karaoke bars, their own little celebration at the end of yet another demanding school day. Salarymen sat down at restaurants and coffee shops as a way to unwind after a hard day's work.

And at a certain bookstore, a handsome, yet somewhat roguish Caucasian man sat contentedly on one of many comfy chairs, reading yet another of those romance novels he'd taken an unusual liking to.

_I'm waiting._

They'd made an arrangement that night, just after their rather late dinner. If Rei decided to accept their offer, he was to meet him here at the bookstore, after which they would meet up with Mancini and Pinocchio at a local fastfood joint. From there, they'd all go to the compound together.

A glance at his digital wristwatch told Daniel it was now 6:29 PM.

_You coming, kid?_

Daniel was very sure that Rei had, in fact, decided to take him up on his offer. He, Daniel, had seen how Rei was with that girl, and the authenticity of what existed between them was unquestionable. He loved her, and it was that love that would decide whether or not Rei would join Daniel and his crew.

Likewise, Daniel had been spot-on with his guess that the boy felt rather inadequate at his own lack of strength to protect her. That inadequacy was only bound to have intensified following the accident at St. Benedict's. After all, how could he protect his loved ones, if he couldn't even react in time to some punk sending him crashing down a flight of stairs?

Something vibrated in Daniel's pocket, causing him to abandon both his rambling thoughts and the paperback novel in front of him. Whistling to himself, he extracted his mobile and then unlocked it as he read the text message he'd just received.

"Excellent."

The smirk on Daniel's face put even the Cheshire Cat's famous grin to shame.

He'd expected this, true enough, but he could just as easily have been wrong. His prey was smart, after all, and she did know Rei best. No doubt she would have sensed something was going on. Even if she didn't know exactly what was troubling the boy, there was no doubt that she would try to dissuade him from whatever he was planning.

But now that he had chosen to join them, that was a moot point, wasn't it?

_Welcome aboard, Rei Mikage._

\------

Rei sat at his desk, writing a letter to someone. He looked up at the bulb illuminating his bedroom, as if somehow expecting it to provide him with a stroke of inspiration, before returning to what he was working on. It was imperative that he finished it now, as he had other matters to attend to as well.

And if anyone else found out about those other matters, there would most certainly be… _complications._

_Shana. Reiko. Kyo._

_My dearest sister._

_Oyuki._

_Ceres._

As he struggled to find the right words, Rei thought of the most important persons in his life. The journey he was about to embark on would likely be his most difficult and arduous one yet, and it would be their faces that would carry him through it. After all, he didn't want power purely for himself; it was for them, so he could protect them and the smiles on their faces.

And yet, when it was _her_ face that he saw in his mind's eye, Rei couldn't help but hesitate.

_Freya…_

Even telling himself that he wasn't technically breaking his word did little to reassure Rei. However much he tried to rationalize and justify himself, telling himself that he'd at least held true to the letter of his promise, there was no shaking the thought that he was betraying the one he loved. And no matter how clearly his letter would explain his motives and reasons behind his decision, he'd still inevitably end up hurting her.

_And don't you forget it, jackass._

Rei winced inwardly as his conscience made itself known.

The worst part of it all was that he couldn't blame Freya if she were to end up mad at him or even hating him. The only problem was, this decision on his part was a necessity brought on by circumstance. After all, as Daniel had so kindly pointed out, there were those who would use Freya as a tool for their own selfish ambition, and it was Rei's duty to protect her.

But while his will was unquestionable, the reality was that he lacked the power to do so.

_Reality is harsh, is it not?_

In writing this letter, Rei was admitting things he had never been able to say aloud before, no thanks to a combination of foolishness and his own petty pride. And he did realize that these words wouldn't be able to completely justify what he was about to do, but he saw no other way. Because he loved her, he wanted to protect her. And to be able to protect her, he needed power.

And the best way he saw that led to power lay with Daniel and his crew.

_I love you, Freya._

_Hate me if you must, but..._

_I'm doing this for you._

Rei took a small knapsack, packed with clothes, a bath towel and various toiletries, then dropped them from out the window to fall to the ground below.

_I'm doing this because I love you, Freya. Don't ever believe different._

A minute later, Rei himself was down there, picking up his pack as he set off to join Daniel and his comrades for a month of training.

\------

"Well, well. Glad you could make it, kid."

Daniel flashed Rei a wild grin as he caught sight of the youth, standing outside the burger joint that was to be their meeting place. He still wore the same outfit as when they'd met up the night before: a hoody with matching cargo pants. The knapsack he was carrying was new, though – as was the somewhat forlorn expression he wore.

"What's the matter, kid? Why so down?"

Rei looked up at him for all of ten seconds, but said nothing. And as he did so, Daniel understood; the boy felt guilty for betraying her, as if he had gone back on a promise they had made. After all, she was the reason he wanted more power in the first place. How ironic that in his quest to gain power for her sake, he'd unwittingly joined up with the ones hunting her.

But then, it was to be expected.

Superpowered persocom assassin or no, even Daniel Cross couldn't blame Rei for wanting to protect someone he loved.

_It's alright if you won't be able to forgive us, kid._

_This way, at least, you'll be able to live on._

"Well?" Rei prompted, his face taking on a mask of determination despite the doubt and guilt that yet plagued him. "Shouldn't we be going?"

Daniel looked up at the younger man. This was a surprise; he really was willing to go through with it. He'd expected him to change his mind, to back out at the last minute, but all he could see was resolve and determination. Despite his inner conflicts, Rei was actually willing to join up with them.

_Nothing is true. Everything is permitted._

"…Right. C'mon, kid."

Daniel led the way to their compound, Rei following shortly behind him.

\------

"Rei, open up! Dinner's ready!"

Freya had been knocking on Rei's door for what seemed to be the ninth time now. Nine times she'd called his name, but no answer. Even if he'd been sleeping, there was no way he could have slept through _that._

_Something's wrong…_

This wasn't like Rei at all. It was rare for him to keep her waiting like this, and even then, he'd at least warn her in advance. Freya continued to knock, but as she did so, she was beginning to consider just taking the [i]alternate[/i] route.

"What's wrong?"

Freya stopped abruptly at the sound of Ceres' voice. The bluenette had no doubt heard her calling for him from downstairs, and so went up to see what was going on.

"He's not answering the door," Freya explained. "I've been knocking and knocking, but…"

Ceres nodded, before reaching into her apron and withdrawing a set of keys. Freya wasn't surprised; she was the Mikage family's caretaker, after all, and so she pretty much had unrestricted access to this house. "Step aside, I'll take care of it."

"Rei, we're coming in, alright?" Ceres called. She turned her key once, then opened the door as it unlocked.

_No…!_

The room was completely empty. The chair in front of the desk was pulled back, suggesting it had been used recently. Likewise, the bed looked as though someone had slept in it, but Rei himself was nowhere to be found. The sliding glass door that separated to the balcony was open as well, which probably meant…

_Damn you, Rei!_

_You promised!_

"There's a note here," Ceres said as she stopped at the desk, picking up the piece of paper that was left there. She opened and read it, eyes narrowing with each line, before she handed it to Freya.

"…It's for you."

Freya's heart tightened, almost as if it was being crushed in an iron grip.

_...Rei, how could you?_

Tears welled up in her amber eyes as she read his message to her.

_Dear Freya,_

_Please forgive me for disappearing on you so suddenly like this._

_I'll be spending the coming month with Daniel Cross, a friend of mine who I met on the day of my accident. He says he can train me to get stronger, so I can have the power I need._

_It's funny, isn't it? The girl I care for very much happens to be a badass killer robot who could wipe out an entire army on her own. Still, I can't stomach the feeling of my own weakness and powerlessness. There are evil men after you, and as I am now, I won't be of much use other than serving as a meatshield, if that. I want to be able to protect you if necessary, but as I am now I'm not good enough._

_I'm not strong enough._

_I know you're probably angry at me for this, not least because you made me promise not to just up and vanish like in your dream, but I didn't have a choice. It was just like Daniel told me – normally it's the guy who protects the ones he loves, but how can I do that if I can't even stop myself falling down the stairs? And besides, regardless of whether or not you happen to be the deadliest persocom in the world, I want to be able to live up to that standard._

_All this time I've cared for you more than I've ever had the guts to admit, no thanks to my own foolish pride. I don't know if Ceres told you, but I'd been living with my head stuck up my ass until I met you. You changed me, Freya, you saved me. And it's because of you that I can go down this road, even knowing what lies ahead. If I become strong enough to protect you, not to mention Ceres and Oyuki, this'll all be worth it in the end._

_Regrettable though it may be, even I can't blame you if you end up hating me because of this. But if you hate me, please at least know that I do this for you, Freya. Because I love you, and I want to be more than just an emotional protector to you. Love, Rei._

Freya had gone quite still, her head bowed with Rei's letter squeezed tightly in her left fist. From the way she was shaking, it was painfully obvious that she wasn't taking it very well. Ceres herself felt a mixture of alarm and outrage, having read his name there. It wasn't enough for him to have betrayed their Order; now he had to go and endanger her family as well.

_Damn Abstergo!_

_And damn_ you _especially, Daniel Cross._

It was all Ceres could do to hold her fellow persocom as she let out a scream of mingled anguish, heartbreak and fury.

_I've got to let the master know about this!_

\------

At that moment, Demeter was busy attending to household chores, cooking dinner for her master and their guest who happened to be occupied at the moment. The recipe was something she and Ceres had found on the internet, back when they still lived together with their master, and had managed to perfect since then. In fact, they used to go about their day-to-day tasks together, housekeeping being one of the things both of them loved to do and had bonded over.

At the same time, recalled Demeter as she laid the pot on the dinner table, they had their differences.

While she and Ceres were programmed with the same abilities, and had undergone the exact same training in their first year of activation, they still had their individual preferences and specializations. For instance Demeter often took the role of controller or operator during missions, while Ceres showed preference for fieldwork. Where she showed inclination towards research, recon and information gathering, her sister's forte lay in what both of them referred to as the 'icky' jobs.

Even in combat, the twins each favoured a different approach. Ceres was fond of firearms of all shapes and sizes, while Demeter was a fan of blades. Lorenzo, too, had noticed their individuality in this regard, and even encouraged it by training them further.

These days, though, Demeter hadn't had much opportunity to show off the results of her training, unlike Ceres who –

_Demi, it's important._

Demeter's eyes glazed over for a second as she received her sister's message. No sooner had she read and confirmed it than she went straight to Lorenzo who'd just logged out of the Animus.

"Rei's been kidnapped."


	25. Under Her Skin

_This really isn't the time for this …_

Even as she took off from the edge of one rooftop to land on another, she still hadn't gotten over how she'd been talked into this.

_I mean… really, Ceres? Are you serious?_

Demeter made her way to St. Benedict's Academy, where her dear sister's _girlfriend_  waited. Strictly speaking, it went against her master's orders, too. Given how Rei went and got himself kidnapped by the traitor Daniel Cross, she'd been ordered to work with her sister to do all it took to get him back.

But Ceres asked her to take a detour here instead, to escort dear Nanako home, as a favor. She said she and Rei's persocom – with whom Ceres said he had a _special_ relationship – would get to it in the meantime.

It was obvious enough to Demeter, who knew her other self very well – inside, and out. Even if Ceres didn't have romantic feelings for the girl, she at least regarded Nanako as being _very_ special to her.

The way her sister reacted when their paths crossed that night made that all too clear to Demeter. But even then, it wasn't exactly something she saw coming. Who could have guessed that she would end up developing feelings for someone, let alone _another girl?_  And if that priceless, flustered look on her face was any indication, even Ceres herself didn't see it coming.

Which, thought Demeter, was deliciously ironic.

In her personal life, as well as in her affairs, Ceres was rarely if ever caught off-guard, a side effect of her training as a sharpshooter. She prided herself on the ability to see things coming from a mile away and then pick them off at her leisure. It was unsurprising, then, that while she was adept with firearms of all shapes and sizes, Ceres was at her best when in the role of a sniper.

She dropped down from one of the campus buildings to land in the waiting area. But no sooner had Demeter stood up from her landing than…

"Ceres!"

With only a split-second's warning, something – or, more appropriately, _someone_ – hurtled into Demeter, wrapping her arms around the persocom such that she was sure she would have suffocated right there had she been human. Barely managing not to fall over, Demeter hesitantly returned the hug while patting the girl on the head.

"Nice to see you too, Nanako," she whispered, chuckling. "But I'm not Ceres. She did ask me to bring you to her, though, and she _did_ tell me good things about you."

\------

Nanako wasted no time pulling away from 'Ceres' – or, at least, her doppelganger. She wore a completely gobsmacked look on her face as she goggled the persocom. "But – how…?" she began. "You – _two of you?_ "

Now that she looked closely, there was something different about the girl in front of her.

For one thing, while their outfits were very similar, Ceres preferred light colors, as opposed to the midnight black dress worn by her double. Where Ceres preferred to roll up her sleeves, her twin appeared to disagree, instead happy with them hanging loose. Last but not least, Ceres' giant waist ribbon was nowhere to be seen on her doppelganger, who instead wore a belt with lots of notches she guessed had something in them.

Otherwise, though, they were exact duplicates.

Same blue hair, same deceptively cold blue eyes, same elven ears…

"You're… _twins?_ "

She nodded, grinning. "Yes, that's right."

"My name's Demeter, dear Nanako," she introduced herself, giggling mischievously even as she curtsied. "I can't lie, y'know. I'm really happy to finally meet my dear sister's _girlfriend._ "

"Tell me, Nanako. How did the two of you meet?"

Demeter and Nanako made their way to the Mikage house, side by side, the former carefully scanning their surroundings as they walked. While she doubted anyone would want to target her companion, Demeter – and Ceres, for that matter – had been trained since day one to remain constantly vigilant. This had become more important than ever in recent years, especially since their enemies had evolved enough to effectively use their own tactics – Assassin tactics – against them.

In fact, there were those among the enemy ranks that had once been their comrades. Daniel Cross was probably the most infamous among them in the modern era, but Abstergo's ranks would undoubtedly have been bolstered by more Assassin turncoats.

And judging by the intelligence, not only Cross, but his team, too, had been spotted in the area. And it stood to reason that he would have passed on his skills to his men…

"…she rescued me, Demeter," Nanako replied dully after a long silence, distracting Demeter from her contemplation. "If she hadn't been there, I wouldn't be talking to you right now."

" _Demi,_ " the persocom corrected her. "It's what Ceres calls me, dear. The way I see it you'll end up becoming part of the family eventually, so I don't see why you shouldn't call me that, too."

Demeter was unsurprised as Nanako flushed bright red, such that she could have been spotted from a satellite in orbit. At any rate, she no longer needed to guess exactly how this girl felt about her sister. Regardless of how it had happened, she'd quite clearly fallen hard for Ceres.

"P-part… of the family?" Nanako repeated, spluttering even as she tried to effect an unconvincing tone of cluelessness. "W-what do you mean, D-Demi?"

But Ceres' twin only laughed at this. "C'mon, dear, there's no need to be so shy about it. …you're in love with my sister, aren't you?"

Before Nanako could answer, though, she heard the sound of something heavy falling through the air, followed immediately by multiple dull thuds around them.

_…!_

She looked up to see no less than half a dozen identical women blocking their way, all with the same long, platinum-hued hair and creepy, blue-green eyes, all clad in the same gray tunics. Even their weapons, a pair of long katars each pulled out from the holsters on her thighs, were exactly alike.

Demeter didn't know what it was exactly, but _something_ about them gave her the creeps.

Like they weren't human somehow…

_Persocoms?_

Demeter half-glanced at Nanako, warning her to stay back. Her hidden blades extended as she flicked her wrists, detaching themselves from their bracers so as to allow their owner to use them as daggers.

But even as Demeter did so, she doubted she'd be able to take them down all by herself.

If these… _things…_ were the product of the so-called Project Nephilim, she and Nanako might very well have to run for it.

\------

Freya was in ruins.

Her mind right now was unresponsive, falling through empty space as she yet struggled to come to terms with what Rei had done. He'd promised that he wouldn't disappear, and yet he went and did it anyway.

As if that promise he'd made meant nothing.

Freya stared once more at the letter he'd left for her, her hands still shaking as a torrent of mingled fury and sorrow took hold of her. She crushed it in her right hand, crumpling it into a small, tight ball, before tossing it out the window as hard as she could.

"I hate you, Rei Mikage!"

She'd said this aloud, not that she meant it.

Not that she cared, not right now.

The truth was that Freya didn't know what to feel right now. On one hand, she wanted to rage at him, hunt him down and smack him around in fury at the promise he'd broken, exact words be damned. If he really did love her as he said in his letter, he wouldn't have done what he did. She didn't [i]care[/i] that he couldn't protect her, she could do that for the both of them, so why –?

"Freya," Ceres said gently, "you did say he hasn't been himself lately?"

She didn't answer, not seeing where this was going. If he was planning this from the very start, it made sense for him to have been acting that way over the past few days. Ever since his accident, to be more precise –

"I think he's being manipulated."

 _That_  caught Freya's attention. "Yeah? You think so?"

Ceres nodded in confirmation, her eyes narrowed grimly as she explained. "Think about it. A few nights ago he snuck out, something he hasn't done even once ever since the two of you met. He's been unusually moody and secretive over the past couple of days, as the both of us have noticed. And then he starts worrying about having to protect you, even knowing perfectly well how deadly you are and what you did to them."

She placed a hand on the blond's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Surely you must have some clue what's happened? I for one don't believe he did this entirely of his own free will, and I'm not sure you do, either."

Even without the letter, Freya could tell that Rei cared for her quite a bit, only hesitating to tell her how he truly felt for fear of being wrong. The blatant disregard for her feelings he'd displayed in his sudden disappearance was very much out of character, which was exactly why she was so upset about it. She knew for a fact he was better than this.

She scanned the information programmed into her, browsing for any files she had on him.

"Daniel Cross, designated Animus Subject No. 4." Freya recited suddenly, surprising Ceres. "Acquired by Lineage as a child. Under the programming of Dr. Warren Vidic, was made to experience symptoms of the bleeding effect at random moments throughout his life, before being released into the wilderness."

Despite herself, Ceres couldn't help but relish the irony of it. Abstergo had gone out of its way to program Freya with all kinds of information, up to and including data on its operatives and its own clandestine activities. In a way, such information could have treated as a deadly weapon in its own right, possibly even more so than whatever enhancements she now possessed.

If nothing else, it would be karmic justice for Freya to use what she'd been given to destroy them.

"Found by the Assassin Order in his early adulthood, becoming one of their most talented and promising rookies by the year 2000. Kidnapped and then brought to a private audience with the Assassin Mentor in their headquarters at Dubai, who was assassinated as per his programmed orders. Made his way back to Abstergo soon after, providing information directly leading to the Assassin Order's collapse."

There was much more information that followed, but most of it was superfluous and irrelevant. What Freya had read was more than enough for her to come to a conclusion; Daniel Cross had manipulated Rei into falling in with them, using his feelings for her as a weapon against him. The thought of it made her insides pulse with rage.

 _I will find you, Daniel Cross, and I will_  kill _you._

Just then, Ceres gasped, startled as she received an incoming call.

" _Good evening, Miss Ceres._ "

Were she human, Ceres would have ice in her veins right now.

\------

Daniel's voice was light and friendly as he addressed Ceres, Rei's caretaker, courtesy of a number he'd obtained from fiddling with the youth's mobile as he slept.

They had no landline, and their compound was designed in such a way that mobile phones would have no signal – a way of discouraging calls from outside – but Daniel and his crew still maintained a link to the outside world in what they referred to as their 'conference room'. Right now Rei was either still sleeping, or being guided through his first session in the Animus by Mancini and Pinocchio.

Either way, he wasn't around to hear this.

"Don't worry, Rei's safe here with us," he mentioned as if offhandedly. "We're gonna train him, actually, get him in the Animus and turn him into possibly the greatest Agent we'll ever be lucky to have… besides me, of course."

Daniel paused for a moment, the better to hear the girl's reaction, before continuing. Regardless of how she felt about him, the only one among them who she had any bad blood for was that monster that slaughtered his men. Part of him had never wanted to betray the Assassins in the first place, and it was that part of him that was speaking now.

He chose his next words carefully, the better to get the message across that he at least meant Rei no harm, but in such a way that he'd be able to get under her skin as well.

"He came with us willingly, by the way. Said he wanted the power to protect his _loved ones._ Poor kid… I wonder if he knows that the one he loves most is really a mindless _killing machine…?_ "

" _Bastard…!_ " growled Ceres. " _Just what do you want!?_ "

"Simple, really," he replied, still in the same patient, faux-affable tone. "That _girlfriend_ of his has my men's blood on her hands, and I intend to pay her back. I owe them that much, at least."

"Give my regards to dear Freya, won't you, _Ceres?_ There's really no need to worry; we've grown quite fond of him already, and you've my word, at least, that he won't be harmed in any way."

Smirking to himself at the outraged hiss from the other end of the line, Daniel severed the connection.


	26. Remorse

Midnight.

By now, at least half of the city was sleeping, safely snug in their beds as they gathered their strength for the new day to come. Even the commercial district, which earlier had been alive with activity, was now winding down as store owners closed for the night and went on home. Indeed, with the exception of those working the graveyard shift, and those few sleepless souls who would party on into the wee hours of the morning, it was safe to say the day had ended for most people.

However, _she_  was not most people.

Indeed, she thought as she gazed down at the city from atop a skyscraper, her mission had just begun. There were certain persons she was to find and kill; it was the reason she was created, the purpose behind the endless hours she'd been made to spend hooked up to that machine, sharpening her skills against all kinds of opponents. At one point, as part of her training, she had more than a hundred of them at a time hunting her down in a huge virtual cityscape. She usually, but not always, won.

And even when she lost, she'd always manage to wreak utter havoc before she herself went down.

Such a record on her part was to be expected, considering that her primary target was every bit as dangerous as her – probably even more. The target in question was her shadow in every way, and even possessed abilities that were on par with her own. It was enough to make her nervous as to whether or not she could accomplish the task that had been set to her.

She quashed that thought. Of course she would. It was the reason why she had been created at all.

Without it, she was nothing.

_Which is why I must not fail._

The sensuous, feminine lips that could be seen under the pitch black cowl curved upwards into a smirk.

_Because unlike her, I'm not a failure._

With that final thought, she jumped off the edge of the skyscraper, arms spread wide as she leapt, gracefully, to land on the ground below.

_I am…_

_…Nephilim._

\------

_Dammit!_

That just about summed up the situation Demeter was in, she thought as she bent over backwards at the waist to dodge the frontal stab that sought to run her cleanly through the stomach. She recovered almost instantly, leaping forward to drive her dagger into her enemy's left temple – where the CPU for most persocoms usually was – but this attempt was met by a well-timed block from her adversary's right hand katar.

The persocom Assassin didn't have long to react, though, as she saw something flash by the corner of her right eye.

_…!_

Demeter kicked her enemy in the side, knocking her into the blade's path just in time for it to strike, impaling the platinum-haired persocom in the back of the head. It stared up at her briefly, almost sadly, as if unable to comprehend what had just happened.

And despite herself, Demeter couldn't help but feel diminished as she looked back at it.

A moment passed. When the blade was withdrawn, the eerie glow in the persocom's bright eyes flickered and died, leaving it to fall limply to its knees like a ragdoll. Seeing her chance, Demeter somersaulted forward, over the heads of their enemies, before landing in front of Nanako and again settling into a fighting stance.

But then…

_Huh…?_

As one, her five remaining adversaries went rigid as flashes of light streaked across their eyes, a clear indication that they were being accessed somehow. Just as abruptly, they snapped back to reality, replacing their weapons in their sheaths, before leaping out of sight.

Nanako, who had huddled into a ball on a nearby bench, chanced a peek at the now-deserted street.

"…Is it over? Demi?"

Demeter didn't answer, still staring ahead at the space where her enemies had been mere moments ago. She'd always thought she and her sister were the only persocoms specifically created for combat; indeed, such an assumption on her part had always been supported by the information she went out of her way to gather on a regular basis. But after she'd found out about Abstergo's so-called Platinum Angel, and then those things…

Demeter's eyes fell on the one enemy she'd manage to defeat among them, still on her knees with that forlorn look on her face.

_It couldn't be…?_

She had a feeling she knew where this was going, but she hoped against hope she was wrong. Nevertheless, she faked a smile as she turned to face her sister's beloved.

"Yeah, pretty much. C'mon, let's not keep Ceres waiting."

\------

"They're coming back."

In his office, Yoshiyuki Kojima looked up from his desk at Abstergo Japan as his main persocom gave him that update, later that night.

"Thanks, Kotoko. Anything happen?"

Kotoko was the first persocom he'd ever built by himself. She'd always been his favourite, even though he had at least 24 other full-sized persocoms at home. She started out life as a laptop-sized unit, albeit one with performance and specs placing her on par with most full-size models, which justified his fondness for her to a certain extent.

But though he was loath to admit it, the reason for that fondness lay in more than just her unusually high specifications, and was actually sentimental in some places as well. Whether or not he knew it, it was that sense of sentimentality that motivated his decision not to upgrade her for so long – though he told himself that Kotoko was powerful enough already, he knew in his heart that that wasn't the real reason.

He'd even gone out of his way to ask Motosuwa to give Kotoko back, some time following 'that' incident. Hell, he'd even bowed before him and asked him for forgiveness!

Given the increasing demands of his work, however – his recent project focusing on the creation of a line of combat-capable persocoms – he'd decided it was way past time that Kotoko was upgraded. He handled the internals for her new body, while she herself designed its appearance. Looking at her now, Kojima thought that she possessed a keen sense of aesthetics he was sure he'd never programmed her with.

Indeed, it had only been a week since the upgrade, but he'd yet been able to get over it. Kotoko's new body had already been the cause of straight males tripping over themselves in the street, and as a matter of fact, he _himself_ –

_Really, Yoshiyuki Kojima. Since when have you sunk so low?_

"Koji-kun?" Kotoko prompted, recalling him to his surroundings. "Have you been spacing out again?"

She pouted; again, Kojima didn't remember ever programming her with such… personality. He realized, much to his confusion, that the way Kotoko now acted toward him wasn't that far removed from how a real girl would act around her _boyfriend_ –

_Alright, idiot. What kind of smoke have you been inhaling–?_

"Ow!"

Kotoko flicked her master on the forehead; she was starting to feel rather irritated that she wasn't getting his attention. He hadn't always been like this; usually Kojima was very alert, but he'd been randomly spacing out rather frequently as of late.

"Anyway," she went on, glaring reproachfully at Kojima as she spoke, "One of them got destroyed. I lost her signal a while back."

"It seems they'd encountered another combat model…"

\------

The first thing Rei had done upon arrival at the compound, was to access the Animus located in his room.

"Well, well. Not bad for a newbie."

And the first thing he heard as he got out of there was Daniel's voice, praising him on how quickly he'd taken to the Animus Virtual Training Program.

The older man had been monitoring his progress as he went through a regimen Mancini and Pinocchio had gone out of their way to design for him: a training mode called Wanted, which pitted him against 11 computer-controlled adversaries, in a digital recreation of Renaissance-era Rome. Whoever had the highest score, obtained via the difference between kills and deaths, would be the victor.

"Oh, really, Daniel?" he tilted his head, puzzled. "You think so?"

Rei's performance, specifically his kill-death ratio, was nothing to write home about – 5 kills, 2 deaths – but it wasn't at all shabby, especially not for a first-timer. As the name itself implied, the object of Wanted Mode was to amass as many kills as possible on one's bounty, while at the same time eluding would-be pursuers.

For a training regimen meant to mold him into some badass SOB of an Assassin, thought Rei, it was rather fun and addicting.

"Of course!" Daniel laughed at the youth, patting him on the shoulder. "Give it time, kid, I'll tell you right now you could very well become the best we'll ever have."

The multiple personas available for him to adopt weren't bad, either. By far, Rei's favourite had been the one called Vali cel Tradat, otherwise known as The Sentinel; there was something about his tragic backstory, and consequently his status as a tragic villain, that appealed to him. His backstory described him as having deserted and betrayed the Assassin Order, but only because he himself felt betrayed by their execution of his idol Vlad the Impaler, and then the subsequent truce with the Ottoman Empire.

And… hell, he thought that The Sentinel was, for lack of a better term, a _badass motherfucker._

It was amazing, actually, thought Rei; while in the Animus, he could move his virtual body just as easily as he did his actual one, maybe even more so. For one thing, he'd never imagined he could climb up a building, or jump from rooftop to rooftop – or for that matter, commit all sorts of twistedly awesome assassinations – but in the Animus, he'd been done all that and more.

_Your favorite persona was someone who betrayed his comrades, huh…? Isn't that interesting?_

_I happen to know someone who betrayed the girl who quite obviously loved him._

Rei ignored his 'inner troll', albeit with difficulty. The fact of his betrayal of Freya, and his subsequent remorse, still hounded him, a knife in the guts that only coming home to her and begging for her forgiveness would cure.

And in his fixation on the pain he'd inadvertently caused the one he loved, Rei didn't notice as his stomach let out a low growl, much to Daniel's mild amusement. The older man roared with laughter, recalling him to the present – and allowing him, mercifully, to shut out his guilty conscience, at least for now.

"Oh, yeah, wanna eat?" Daniel asked as he made to open the door and exit the room, "I don't know about you, but I for one can't be in there for that long and not be hungry."

With that, he left the room, leaving Rei to his thoughts.

_Please, Freya, wait for me._

_I'm doing this for you._

And even as he thought that, Rei wondered how she was doing right now.

\------

_Rei…_

Freya stood by herself on the rooftop, staring up at the full moon as she thought of him.

By now, Rei's abrupt departure had sunk in, leaving Freya to ponder what was going through his head when he decided to go through with it. If Ceres was right, it all began when he met his 'accident'; not long after, he met Daniel Cross, who offered to train him if he joined them. He'd guessed, correctly, that Rei was probably feeling more than a little frustrated at himself, and played on that frustration – and, less forgivably, his love for her – to sway him to their side.

 _Try to see it from his point of view,_ said the voice of Ceres in her head. _You of all people should know it's normal to want to protect the one you love. There's no doubt he knows just how deadly you are, but still…_

The other girl was right. Freya's attempt to rationalize herself fell flat on its face, especially considering she herself knew she would have felt the same way in his shoes. Nor did it help for her to tell herself that she was probably the deadliest persocom in the world right now, and that she could protect herself and Rei quite well, because he knew that just as well as she did.

_He knows that, Freya, and so do I._

_But even then, I can't entirely blame him for feeling the way he did._

Ceres was right, then.

_Thank you, Ceres._

Freya now knew what she wanted – no, _needed_ – to do.


	27. Siren

"Hmm?"

Zima raised his headpiece as he laid down on the penthouse at the top of one of the many skyscrapers in the commercial district, having finished looking over the most recent batch of information he'd acquired. Dita, who was resting on top of him, gave a start at the sudden movement. Whenever he woke up like this, it was usually because he'd come across something interesting.

"…Zima? What's wrong?"

Zima barely heard her as he went over it all one more time, in his head. It seemed that Abstergo Japan had just finished their new line of combat persocoms. If the data was anything to go by, they'd learned from their mistakes, too. While each of those new persocoms was programmed with lifetimes' worth of combat training, not to mention physical durability and security software well beyond any commercial model, they lacked the more esoteric upgrades Freya possessed as the product of Project Seraph.

It wasn't too surprising, not really; on the contrary, thought Zima, it was a good call on their part. After all, given how Freya had all but massacred her way out of Abstergo, it stood to reason that they probably wouldn't want a repeat of that incident. And on the more practical side, they probably wanted to save some money, too. Unlike Freya, who came to them pretty much whole, this new batch was built entirely from scratch.

Even then, though, Zima wondered if he was looking at the fruits of the so-called Project Nephilim. From the information available, the object of Project Nephilim was to repeat the project that had spawned Freya, only this time, exercising some form of control that would prevent another incident like the one Freya had caused. They'd probably suppress the persocom's free will or, barring that, find another way to keep her on a leash.

"Take a look at this, love. Something seems to have happened at Abstergo recently."

The data transfer took mere moments, as did Dita's perusal of it. Her thoughts echoed his, as well. No doubt those persocoms would be deadly against human opponents, but against something like her…

_Wait, what's this?_

Among the many data files and folders, however, was one marked 'PNE-000'.

_'PNE-000'?_

_PNE… Project Nephilim?_

Dita accessed that one, and as she did so, the data she found seemed to indicate that her suspicions were on the right track. The contents of that folder held information on another persocom, one similar but distinct to the line Zima had been looking at earlier. Appearance-wise, they were almost exactly alike, except for a small brand in the middle of its chest that resembled a single black wing.

For the most part, the differences lay in their respective specifications; the progeny of Project Nephilim possessed upgrades that allowed it to directly counter those possessed by Freya. Rather than trying to render her capable of destroying the blond persocom in a straight-up fight, Abstergo had instead given her the ability to get under Freya's skin and gain the advantage through, among other things, psychological warfare.

_Freya's dangerous enough._

_Now with that thing out in the field, as well–_

"Lemme guess, dear," Zima mused as he studied the look on her face. "That thing scares you, doesn't it?"

Dita didn't answer that; she didn't need to. Zima could very well tell from the look on her face how she felt.

But what scared Dita most about the offspring of Project Nephilim, wasn't what she knew about it, but rather what she didn't know. Indeed, comparing her data on Project Nephilim with the information she'd hacked pertaining to Project Seraph, Abstergo's latest model actually lacked some of the upgrades they'd seen fit to install in Freya.

Specifically, Freya's accelerator was something it didn't have, as were her regenerative capabilities. In their place were two particular enhancements, respectively known as 'CHRONOS' and 'ORPHEUS'. Both were in keeping with Abstergo's penchant for mythological theme naming; the former was quite obviously the master of time, while the latter…

Dita had absolutely no idea what it was, and that, more than anything, was what made her nervous.

\------

"I can't believe you, Ceres!" Demeter exclaimed as she sat together with Nanako and her sister in the Mikage house's living room. "You've seriously developed feelings for _another girl?_ "

The way the both of them flushed was all the answer Demeter needed. In truth, she already knew perfectly well that _something_ was blossoming between this girl and her sister, and that Ceres, at least, would probably try to deny it, however feeble such a denial was bound to be. All Demeter was doing right now, was exercising her right as the older twin – which she did think of herself as – to playfully tease and embarrass her younger sibling.

"Maybe, but don't you think it's a bit… _irrelevant_ , right now, Demi?" Ceres spluttered in reply, still somewhat red from her sister's earlier jab. "You do remember that Rei got himself kidnapped, don't you? And by a certain _traitor_ , no less?"

Nanako looked up at those words. Though they were both part of the Academy's Psychology Department, she didn't know Rei that well. But even then, she knew enough of him to know that he was a good guy, even if he had habits that, to say the least, left something to be desired. One way or another, he had a penchant for slacking off all semester, only to pull out at least half-decent grades by the very end.

Putting aside his more… undesirable habits, Rei Mikage really wasn't that bad.

So why would he be kidnapped?

"…I haven't forgotten, Ceres, no need to remind me," Demeter replied; sure enough, the reminder of her real task here was enough to wipe the grin off her face. "Why, though? Last time I checked, he didn't know anything!"

"It's because of me."

The voice that spoke those words was completely new to Demeter, whose eyes darted upwards at the door as another persocom, one with long, blond hair, entered the room. She turned the lights on as she looked at the three of them, from Ceres to her sister to Nanako, before taking her seat at a chair perpendicular to the couch occupied by the three of them.

"I assume Ceres told you about me? I'd be surprised if she didn't… Demeter."

In truth, Ceres had contemplated relating Freya's backstory to her sister, but decided not to. While she, Ceres, trusted the blond persocom, she couldn't say the same thing about her sister. The last thing they needed right now was for Demeter to pick a fight with Freya, not when they had no way of knowing what that man had in store for Rei.

Ceres smiled slightly at the look of puzzlement and confusion on her sister's face. "Oh sorry, Demi, I haven't introduced you yet. This here's Freya," she said with a smile on her face as she gestured towards her. "She's Rei's persocom, and you could say she's his girlfriend as well, but…"

"Actually, no, I didn't. Freya, why don't you fill her in with the details?"

Then she turned to her sister. "She's on our side, Demi. You can trust her. The mistress does, and I'm pretty sure our master would, too, if he knew her."

At Ceres' suggestion, Freya hesitated. Trusting Ceres with her secrets and burdens came easily; after all, the blue-haired persocom who Rei regarded as a surrogate older sister had all but acknowledged her place in the Mikage household. The problem was that, twins or not, Demeter may not feel the same way as her sister.

_Should I?_

All that mattered right now, was getting Rei back.

And when they finally did, thought Freya as she began to narrate her tale, she'd have three things ready for him.

What awaited Rei was a kiss from Freya, then an embrace… and at least a dozen slaps, not necessarily in that order.

\------

"Tell me, Rei. Why a persocom, and not a human girl?"

At Daniel's question, Rei couldn't help but gag on his soda. That was something he didn't expect.

In hindsight, though, he wasn't surprised that the older man would ask him about Freya. Having a persocom for a girlfriend wasn't exactly common in today's society, and was even looked down on by some of its more obstinate members. Rei might not be openly mocked in the streets, but that wouldn't stop some people from deriding him to and among themselves.

And yet, somehow, he'd ended up with a girlfriend who wasn't just any persocom, but _the deadliest one on the planet_.

Not that he cared.

"…Honestly, Daniel? I don't care whether she's a persocom or a human," Rei admitted truthfully, reiterating what he had told Ueda what seemed to be 10 years ago. "Hell, she could be some alien chick from another dimension and I still wouldn't care. It's about _who_ she is, not _what_ she is."

"And before you ask, yes, I know perfectly well about her background," he added, smiling slightly at the man he'd come to regard as his mentor. "Though I still have trouble imagining her capable of throwing temper tantrums like… that."

Daniel couldn't help but smile in spite of himself. So whatever was between the two of them was real. He could feel a grudging sense of respect for his adversary; while he'd always thought of her as some unfeeling, soulless, murderous doll, what existed between her and this youth was evidence to the contrary. It was [i]almost[/i] enough to make him doubt whether he was justified in his self-appointed task.

Almost, but not quite.

"Even I admit that the idea of what she'd done disturbed me at first. Hell, it horrified me. When I first met Freya, she was always quiet and shy, and I could never imagine her doing… that."

For his part, Rei glanced at the wall clock right beside the fridge; it was now 2 in the morning, and they'd finished eating an hour ago. For some reason, he was beginning to feel rather tired, too. Had he really been in the Animus for that long, or was it just plain exhausting? They'd gotten here barely a few hours ago, as far as he knew.

Regardless, he took a deep breath as he continued:

"I know it might be a boneheaded thing for me to say, but I'm willing to overlook her past. Even disregarding how I've fallen hard for her, she's become part of our family now, and as I told her, I never abandon my own. You wouldn't abandon Pinocchio or Matt or the others, would you?"

At those words, Daniel winced. 

_Good one, kid._

_So, we're more alike than I thought._

No, he wouldn't abandon any of them, not even if Vidic and the others demanded it. He, Daniel, had been with his team since day one, and had witnessed each and every one of their successes and failures. They'd mourn casualties and deaths among their own, and at least once, he himself had cradled his fallen comrades and given them their last rites. He was loyal to them, just as they would go wherever he would go.

_And that, more than any order those old loons could give me, is why I need to put your girlfriend down, kid._

_I owe them that much._

\------

Elsewhere, a hooded figure walked through the empty streets of the city's residential area.

It had been less than half a day since her activation, but already she was being made to return home. She didn't want to, even protesting that she had a mission to accomplish, but her controller had been firm. The targets were dangerous, said her controller. As she was now, she wouldn't stand a chance on her own. If she wanted to be sure she'd be able to complete her mission, she couldn't take any chances.

It was strange, she thought. She'd been created as the shadow of her primary target; her opposite, but equal to each other in everything that mattered. Her creator, not to mention her controller, knew perfectly well what she could do, so this order to return made no sense to her at all. It made her wish, very much, that her controller – who insisted that she call her 'mother' – had more faith in her capabilities.

_I'm the Nephilim. I'm no failure._

She was forced to abandon those thoughts, though, as no less than five persocoms, similar to her in appearance, landed all around her.

_One of them's missing… Don't tell me they encountered the target?_

Just then, too, her mother made herself known.

" _Come home already, Siren. There's always tomorrow._ "

She hesitated, still unwilling to follow.

But the next words spoken to her, made it clear she didn't have a choice.

" _That's an order._ "

At the voice, she and her fellows headed home, where their _mother_ was no doubt waiting for them.


	28. Though I Be Damned

Kotoko heaved a sigh as she sat down on Kojima's bed at home, reflecting on the events that had recently transpired. He'd sent her home ahead, telling her he was going to be in his office tonight, and so she used the time to think back on how crazy recent developments had been.

_Koji-kun…_

It seemed like just yesterday, he was just another custom persocom enthusiast, albeit one who happened to be a bit of a jackass. Aside from the whole Chii incident, he also had a way of being condescending to people he butted heads with. Indeed, Kojima had a habit of coming into conflict with his peers much too often for his own good.

Kotoko smirked to herself as she remembered the arguments he'd get into on the BBS. There was one user in particular, using the online handle 'M', who he butted heads with on a regular basis.

Then, the Chii incident happened.

Kojima had kidnapped her just as she happened to be spacing out at the local bookstore, ostensibly out of an insatiable desire to study her further. Unfortunately, he ended up biting off more than he could chew. To say the least, his attempt to find out more about Chii – one of two legendary persocoms called Chobits – ended up royally blowing up in his face.

Not only did he fail to find out anything at all, Motosuwa forced him to give her to him as well – just in case he tried to delete the data pertaining to the incident. Even when they encountered him afterwards, he hadn't seemed to change much. Needless to say, it was a huge shock when Kojima suddenly showed up at Motosuwa's apartment, asking for his forgiveness and for Kotoko to be returned to him.

She, Kotoko, had always known that he was nicer than he let on; there was something in the way he treated the persocoms he himself had built that hinted at a kinder side to the normally haughty youth. But even she didn't expect that he'd do something like that. It was probably the first time she'd ever seen him quite literally beg for someone's forgiveness.

And ever since then, the changes in his attitude only seemed to continue; while he never completely got rid of his ego, he'd become much less of a misanthrope ever since.

In fact, when Abstergo came calling – no doubt having heard of his reputation and expertise when it came to custom-built persocoms – he agreed to join them right away. And when she, Kotoko, asked him about his decision, he said simply that something in their mission statement of changing the world appealed to him. Kojima called it his own way of doing some good in the world.

Needless to say, he wasn't too comfortable with the project Abstergo put to him.

Kotoko remembered the conversation Kojima had with her when he first started working on Project Nephilim. He'd confided to her his misgivings about creating a persocom for such a purpose, to be used only as a killing machine. His superiors had wanted him to create the Nephilim – not to mention her sisters – as little more than a mindless doll, the better to prevent her from going rogue like what happened with Project Seraph. That particular instruction went disregarded, though.

Or rather, Kotoko chose to ignore it for him.

Indeed, thought Kotoko; while PNE-000 – the Nephilim, who she'd christened 'Siren' – had a personality not unlike that of the fictional Terminators, even she could eventually move past that seeming emotionlessness. It was part of the reason why she'd insisted that she be called 'mother' by the persocom assassin, though only between the two of them.

Siren was practically her daughter anyway, given her involvement in her creation, and Kotoko sure as hell didn't want her daughter to be used as some mindless, murderous doll. She might not be able to completely prevent Siren from carrying out her mission, but she had hope that, eventually, her 'daughter' would end up growing a conscience of her own. That eventually, she'd end up rebelling, following in the footsteps of Abstergo's so-called Platinum Angel.

_Hypocrite._

_If you value free will of persocoms so much, why'd you install 'those' programs into her?_

The sudden creaking sound interrupted Kotoko's train of thought.

The balcony door opened, revealing a hooded, platinum-haired, feminine figure, whose bright eyes glowed in the darkness.

\------

The days that followed caused Rei to experience a mild case of culture shock.

"Dude, wake up already!"

Everyday, Rei was unceremoniously roused from his slumber at around 5:30 in the morning to take part in morning runs and exercises with the rest of the team. Actually, he thought, 'exercises' was a bit of an understatement, considering how the training he'd signed up for turned out to be not unlike that typically undergone by army cadets.

The first time this happened, it was Daniel who'd woken him up, and with that smug grin on his face. He'd complained, too, wondering why he was being made to wake up so early, at which point his mentor reminded him that physical conditioning was part of the training he'd signed up for. No pain, no gain.

"And conversely," Daniel had said, sporting his characteristic mischievous grin, "A lot of pain, a lot of gain."

Rei understood that well enough, but he wasn't wholly convinced at first. Hadn't they told him their training program revolved around the Animus?

But when he raised this, Daniel explained that while he'd undoubtedly gain the necessary skills as a result of the time spent in the Animus Virtual Training Program, he still needed the physical conditioning to properly apply those skills. All those badass Assassin skills he'd assimilated from the training regimen would be useless if his body wasn't in peak condition.

"Besides," Daniel had said, "Don't you think it'd be a bit embarrassing? In your current state, you'd probably die trying to pull off all those fancy moves you've picked up. We don't want you falling on your ass the first time you climbed a building out of the Animus, now do we?"

Again, reflected Rei at the end of that week, he couldn't argue with his new mentor. However, the way his body still throbbed and ached all over begged to differ. He wasn't out of shape, not by any stretch of the imagination, but the training regimen Daniel and his team had prepared for him was on a whole new level.

_I'll become the best you'll ever have, huh, Daniel…?_

_That's if I don't die first._

But no sooner did Rei form that thought, a grimace on his battered face, than her face appeared in front of his mind's eye. Smiling at him, extending a hand as though welcoming him home, tears welling up in her eyes.

_Freya._

He shook his head as he laid back down on the bed, the grimace having been replaced by a crooked smile.

_I'm doing this for you._

_I'll become strong enough to protect you._

_Though I be damned._

Right there and then, just before he finally drifted off to sleep, Rei Mikage made a solemn vow to himself.

He would become an Assassin, or die trying.

\------

" _I'll be at a friend's house until tomorrow, mom. No need to wait up for me._ "

Nanako Mizunuma let out a sigh as she locked her mobile phone, having finished sending her text message to her foster mother.

_Ceres…_

Lying beside Ceres as she stared up at the ceiling of Oyuki's room, Nanako went over the past week's upheaval in her head. It had been barely more than a week since she and Ceres first met, since the persocom had comforted her after the horror in that alleyway. Nanako still remembered the cold rage that seemed to emanate from her as she levelled the gun in the face of her would-be tormentor, before eventually pulling the trigger.

But now, all too soon after that incident, it was her turn to return the favour. If, that time, it was Ceres who'd held her as she cried silently in the Mikage family's living room, it was now Nanako's turn to help the persocom cope with this most undesirable turn of events.

She turned towards Ceres, embracing the sleeping persocom with her right arm as her thoughts turned to him.

_Rei Mikage…_

Nanako knew perfectly well that Ceres served as a mixture of retainer and maid for Rei and his family, but even she was surprised at how the blue-haired persocom seemed almost as upset as Freya was. While she'd tried to hide it, polishing and maintaining the twin pistols she kept in her apron in a would-be casual manner, it was the ominous glow in Ceres' wintry eyes that gave her away.

It must have been all too clear, thought Nanako, as it was then that Demeter – who, in a vain attempt to try and lighten the atmosphere somewhat, had half-jokingly referred to herself as Nanako's future sister-in-law – deigned to explain something: Rei Mikage had become something of a younger sibling to Ceres. Just as she and her sister had all but become part of the Mikage family, so too did they come to feel affection and love for the family they'd been assigned to protect.

So for something like this to happen…

_Awful._

But even _that_ , thought Nanako, was probably an understatement.

There wasn't much she could do for Ceres, and her realization of that fact did nothing at all to reassure her.

Unlike Ceres or Demeter, who had shown themselves more than capable of staring evil in the face and giving it the finger, she, Nanako, was pretty much useless. If anything, she knew all too well that, in the worst case scenario, she'd end up becoming a burden to them. In the worst case, she might even be the cause of their deaths.

Unlike Ceres or Demeter, all Nanako was good for was crying for help –

_That's it._

It was at that moment that inspiration struck her.

And as Nanako tapped away on the touch screen of her phone, she hoped that this idea of hers would actually work.

\------

At the Kokubunji residence, too, all was still. Uncharacteristically of him, Minoru chose to sleep early that night, with most of the maid persocoms likewise taking the opportunity to recharge. The only one still active at the time was a lone female figure, seated in front of the terminal located in her master's study.

The five identical persocoms surrounding the big house moved as one, bypassing the walls by climbing surrounding trees and then jumping down from the branches. As they landed, they checked the functionality of their hidden blades, which replaced their standard-issue long katars for this mission. Their handler had judged such weapons to be sufficient for their current mission, given that the resistance they anticipated from this first target wasn't very much.

The mission they and the Nephilim – who they were designed after – had been given involved the liquidation of certain individuals deemed a threat to Abstergo's plans. Most of them were estimated to have at least a moderate level of danger attached to them, but the danger level on this particular target was non-existent, and so they'd decided to go after him first.

After all, a child, prodigy though he might have been, surely wasn't _that_ dangerous?

The lead persocom raised a hand, signalling her fellows to follow her, silently, into the house.

Unbeknownst to them, however, their host had prepared a welcome of sorts…


	29. Whether Glorious or Tragic

" _Mother._ "

At the sound of that voice, and at the sight of the figure standing at the foot of the bed, Chitose woke with a start.

It was but one word, but one of significance to her nevertheless. While both her daughters were still alive – as alive as artificial beings could be, anyway – it was still the last thing she'd expect she'd ever get to hear again, given that neither of them seemed to remember much of their past lives as her children. Needless to say, hearing that word made Chitose very happy indeed.

At least, it should have.

Yet something seemed off, somehow…

Wait a minute…

"Chii?"

Chitose's confusion mounted with each passing moment. It sure seemed like Chii, given that the outfit she wore was one of Chitose's old dresses. To be precise, it was the exact same one worn by Chii on that fateful night. On the other hand, her voice was a bit too husky, and for that matter, the grave, almost grim expression on her face was one Chitose had never seen Chii wear before.

And that thing on her arm…

"…Freya?"

There was no answer, but the way her daughter's eyes hardened told Chitose that she was right. " _Mother._ "

" _I had to borrow Chii's body, mother,_ " Freya explained, her eyes locked onto her mother's the entire time.

_"The ones who violated me…"_

_"…They've been sent to kill Minoru Kokubunji."_

She wasn't quite sure exactly how Freya had come across that information, but Chitose nevertheless let out a small, horrified gasp at the terrible, terrible turn of events. Prodigy though he was, Minoru was still a child. What reason could anyone have to try and kill him…?

"Minoru-kun? How-?" Chitose began, but Freya cut her off.

" _There's no time right now, mother. Do you still have access to GUNGNIR?_ "

At that word, Chitose looked up. "How did you-?"

" _Mother, there's no time. You have to trust me on this._ "

Chitose hadn't expected Freya to know about GUNGNIR, but then Abstergo – or, more likely, Regenschirm – had probably programmed that bit of information into her. Her husband had considered him a close friend, after all…

Her brow furrowed at the thought of Regenschirm's betrayal.

GUNGNIR was a countermeasure the two of them had developed together, to be used in case of widespread persocom malfunction, capable of overriding a persocom's systems and forcing a system shutdown - in other words, a more powerful version of the special function Chii possessed. The main difference was that while Chii would indiscriminately shut down all persocoms in close proximity to her, GUNGNIR could be directed at specific targets.

At least, provided the user knew their IP addresses.

Needless to say, GUNGNIR was far from perfect. Not only would it fail to work without the IP addresses of the targets in question, it would also be useless against persocoms that shared Chii and Freya's system structure. The second one was a moot point, however. Excluding Chii and Freya themselves, only four such persocoms were known to exist.

And it was just as well, too. GUNGNIR was something neither Chitose nor her husband would have used lightly, given how, on some level, both of them viewed all persocoms as surrogate children. Both of them were well aware that it had been created out of necessity, but that didn't mean they had to like it.

Even so…

Chitose forced herself to look up at her daughter as she made her choice.

"…Freya."

"Won't you come with me to the lab?"

Chitose _still_ didn't like the idea of having to use GUNGNIR again. Right now, though, saving lives took greater precedence.

\------

"Thank you, Chii…" Freya whispered to herself as she stood watch on the roof of the Mikage house.

"Thank you, mother."

She pulled up the peaked hood of her Assassin robes – the same robes she'd been garbed in when she awakened in Abstergo's lab, albeit washed clean of all the blood that had tainted it – as she stared up at the moon. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, her hidden blades extending as she flexed her wrists.

"Now…"

She leapt from the roof, landing on one knee on the ground below.

"Let's be on our way, shall we?"

Freya decided it was time for her to pay _someone_ a visit.

\------

" _Intruder detected. Activating security system._ "

Yuzuki's voice sounded over the PA system as she sat in the study, right in front of Minoru's computer terminal. Freya's fragment in Yuzuki had also awakened by now, having been become aware of the intruders that had broken and entered into the Kokubunji mansion.

Unlike what happened with Chii, though, Freya hadn't yet seen fit to take over Yuzuki's body.

Nor did she see the point.

The main reason she'd done that back when Chii came under attack was as a psychological attack; she and Chii were twins, after all. It wasn't too much of a stretch for the enemy to have assumed that it was Freya they'd encountered, and so she saw no reason to disabuse them of the notion. Besides, it was her own way of getting her point across: anyone who so much as laid a finger on her loved ones would come to regret it.

" _Point defense systems online._ "

It was different in this case, though. For one thing, the enemies before Freya were also persocoms, and she was all but certain that Abstergo hadn't programmed them with the capacity for emotions such as fear.

_"Please cease your attempt at trespass and leave the premises at once."_

_"If you do not comply, we cannot guarantee your safety."_

Of course, Freya knew better than to hope that the enemy would do just that. In this case, it was probably too much of a stretch to even call these enemies of hers persocoms, given how Abstergo had more or less deprived them of the capacity for independent action. It would probably be more appropriate to label them 'dolls' or 'marionettes', or something else to that effect.

" _Yuzuki._ "

"…Miss Freya?" Yuzuki looked round as she heard the voice, though she knew perfectly well that she'd heard it in her head. "Where are you?"

" _I'm right where you are, silly,_ " came the reply, voiced in a tone at odds with the words spoken.

_""I'd hoped you'd never need it, but…"_

_"This is my gift to you."_

Yuzuki's eyes widened, light streaking across them as the mass of data Freya had given her suddenly began decompressing itself. The second it took her to analyze it was enough for her to understand just what Freya had meant by what she'd said at the time, too. Combat data, infiltration and assassination were but three areas covered by Freya's 'gift', but it was enough for her to understand.

In effect, Yuzuki had become a copy of Freya.

" _How you use my gift... is up to you._ "

She got up from her seat and made her way back to Minoru's room.

Yuzuki still had misgivings about what Freya had given her, but hopefully, the gift she'd received would let her protect him.

\------

"Hmm?"

Getting up from bed to turn to his bedside table, Lorenzo Auditore frowned at his laptop's screen as he read the reports Ceres and Demeter had sent.

So he had been right, after all. Rei's persocom – Freya, Ceres had called her – was indeed Abstergo's so-called Platinum Angel. In fact, if her report was to be believed, Freya had literally found her way to the Mikage house's doorstep the morning immediately after the incident, and had been living with them ever since.

His wife had come to trust her, as had their daughter. Both arguably meant something in themselves, but that Ceres herself vouched for Freya's trustworthiness was even more incredible. If even Ceres, who had been taught to remain constantly vigilant, had come to trust Abstergo's pet project gone rogue, that surely meant she was the real deal.

As for Rei himself…

There was no need to guess how Rei regarded her, in light of the fact that it was his idea to take her in to begin with.

But from what Ceres had reported, their relationship was even closer than that.

Indeed, if Ceres was to be believed, his brother-in-law now had a girlfriend who happened to be arguably the most lethal persocom ever made. Freya would accompany him to school, and at times, said Ceres, the two of them would even take Oyuki with them out to dates. Grave though the situation admittedly was, Lorenzo couldn't help but smile at the image that had formed in his head.

_Nothing is true. Everything is permitted._

_To say that nothing is true, is to realize that the foundations of society are fragile, and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization._

Not for the first time, Abstergo's attempt at undermining free will blew up in its face, and on a major, major scale. From the data they'd obtained, Freya had been given abilities that all but made her a one-man army. On its own, the video they'd acquired of her murderous rampage already served as testament to her lethality, and at the time, she hadn't even been using her enhancements.

_To say that everything is permitted, is to understand that we are the architects of our own actions, and that we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic._

And now, they'd kidnapped Rei and angered Freya further.

Lorenzo closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again as he typed out a message to his twins. He couldn't completely trust Freya, at least not yet, but he felt that she at least deserved the benefit of the doubt. After all, the mere fact that his family trusted her – his wife, his daughters – all three of them – and his brother-in-law – counted for something. If nothing else, they at least had a common goal they could work together to achieve.

 _Bravo, Abstergo,_  he thought with a smirk.

Indeed, Lorenzo almost felt sorry for them.

If Freya already hated them with a murderous rage for what they'd done to her, he couldn't even begin to imagine what she'd do to them now that they'd kidnapped Rei.

_And... wait a minute._

_Freya?_

_Now where have I heard that name before?_

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the name seemed somehow _familiar_ to him.

And as Lorenzo sought to remember exactly where he'd encountered Freya before, the image of an eccentric, quirky scientist came to mind.

\------

Kotoko relaxed as her 'daughter' entered, pulling down her hood to reveal long, silver hair. While she seemed whole and undamaged, the way her pale eyes seemed to flicker and glow told Kotoko of displeasure. As she was alone, Kotoko assumed that her 'sisters' had returned to Abstergo instead.

The Nephilim stepped forward, eyes locked onto her 'mother' all the while.

"I'm happy to see you've returned, Siren," Kotoko began, her air that of a mother addressing a beloved but somewhat rebellious child. "What's on your mind, though? Is something wrong?"

Kotoko received no answer from the persocom she called her daughter, but nevertheless, she understood. She knew that if Siren was that way, it was thanks to the personality she, Kotoko, had programmed her with. As per the orders from Kojima's bosses, she wasn't even supposed to have a personality – or for that matter, free will and emotions – to begin with.

Of course, Kotoko had included a final countermeasure if ever she and her Koji-kun were to be targeted by Abstergo. Even then, though, said countermeasure was something she, Kotoko, would rather not use at all, if at all possible.

If she did so, she'd be no different from _them._

And finally, after a long silence, her daughter spoke.

"Mother," Siren muttered. "Am I useless?"

Kotoko could detect the barest hint of regret in her daughter's voice as she said those words. She surmised that Vidic and the others might have been the ones to have told Siren that, considering the skirmish she'd gotten herself into, earlier that night. She didn't like that man, not in the least bit; after all, he was the one who'd been putting Kojima up to all this, and the one who sought to use her daughter as some murderous doll.

Regardless, Kotoko sought to dispel the inner turmoil she sensed in her daughter, and so moved to embrace her.

"No, you're not. Didn't I tell you?"

"You're Project Nephilim's one and only."

The faint grunt that followed as Kotoko let go was the one sign Siren gave that conveyed understanding of her words. Next thing Kotoko knew, her daughter was standing at the edge of the balcony as before.

"Mother."

"I'm commencing my mission now."

And with that, the Nephilim took a dive off the edge.


	30. The Person Just For Her

_Icchan._

_Old friend._

_Can it be?_

Lorenzo Auditore's thoughts were running wild, his fingers flying frantically all over his laptop's keyboard as he accessed the Assassin Order's database.

Following the betrayal of Daniel Cross, and the ensuing disaster, the Order implemented stricter rules. These rules mandated thorough background checks not only on their members, but on every individual that had and would ever be affiliated with them. According to Acting Mentor Bill Miles, such changes in policy were intended precisely to ensure that the tragedy in Dubai never happened again.

As such, it was standard operating procedure for the Assassin Order to have dossiers on their members operating worldwide. Their level of detail was such that they even included the number of partners slept with, which was actually one of the less sensitive pieces of information they contained. Needless to say, they contained enough dirt to make sure that anyone who crossed them would be just as likely to be shamed and humiliated into suicide as they were to be targeted for assassination.

One such person was Ichiro Mihara, who had always been a close friend of the Far Eastern Assassin's Guild, and of Lorenzo in particular. It was common knowledge that he was practically a god in the field of robotics, and that his name was up there with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as among the biggest names of the 21st century. What wasn't quite as well known, however, was that he had been highly valued by the Assassins not only as a financial backer, but as a mentor figure in his own right.

And finally, after minutes of searching, Lorenzo found his file. _It's been a while, old friend._

" _Dr. Ichiro Mihara, born 1995, was highly celebrated as a pioneer of science and technology. Today, he is best remembered not only as the father of all persocoms, but as the creator of the Angels that became a worldwide phenomenon early on in the decade._ "

The first paragraph hardly contained any information he could use, given that it was about the same as what he could find practically anywhere on the internet.

" _The Assassin Order in particular has benefited immensely from his efforts. Mihara was a longtime mentor for the Order's Information Technology Division, having trained its members in various areas such as electronic warfare._ "

Again, thought Lorenzo with a smile, this was true. While Mihara – Icchan, as he had preferred to go by – had had neither the stomach nor the inclination for fieldwork, it was because of him that cyberspace was mostly Assassin territory. All of the IT Division's current members had been his students, and it showed. Indeed, when he was still alive, most if not all the Assassin Order's trainees were required to spend at least some time learning from him.

" _Just as with the general public, however, Mihara's greatest contribution lay in persocom development. Especially notable was his work on the Eden series of persocoms which possess greater capabilities that allow them to engage in fieldwork as required by the Order. Even today, these persocoms continue to be of aid to the Order and its agents, acting among other things as bodyguards and field operatives._ "

_Wait, what?_

_Demeter… and Ceres?_

_That_ took Lorenzo by surprise.

He'd never known of Icchan's involvement in the development of the Eden series of persocoms, let alone that it was he who created Demeter and Ceres. In hindsight, though, it wasn't the least bit surprising, especially considering how the Eden series of five years ago was known for being more advanced than even the newest models of today. He doubted even those persocoms belonging to the military or the police actually saw much in the way of action.

And if anything, thought Lorenzo, it was his own fault for not having made the connection sooner. After all, Demeter and Ceres _had_ been given to him by Icchan not long after his work on the project.

Sensing that the information he sought was further still, he read on.

" _Dr. Mihara died in 2026, less than three years after creating the now-legendary Chobits – successors to the Eden series that came before – and less than two after the death of his daughter Freya. However, his legacy lives on today not only as part of the Assassin Order, but of society itself. As of this writing, he is survived by his wife Chitose, and their daughter Elda._ "

It was here that Lorenzo's hunch was confirmed.

Just as he'd suspected, it was his friend's daughter who Abstergo had kidnapped and then turned into a killing machine, all against her will. He'd never actually met Icchan's daughters, and he hadn't been there to witness their birth either, given that he'd been out of the country at the time. But even then, Lorenzo remembered his friend making references to them a couple of times. They were said to be a 'surprise' for his wife, who was barren and was unable to bear children of her own.

In fact, the database was rather misleading on one point; though it referred to the Chobits as the successors of the Eden series, Icchan had confided in him that there wasn't a lot of difference between their capabilities. According to what he'd said at the time, the one real difference between the persocoms of the Eden series and his daughters was sentience, and even that became moot later on, thanks to a certain incident. In Icchan's own words, his daughters were beings to be loved, and who could fall in love.

It was bad enough that they'd involved his family – as far as Lorenzo was concerned, Rei Mikage _was_ family –in this mess, because they'd just entitled themselves to a messy death at his hands. And if he himself couldn't get to them, his twins would be much more likely to succeed.

But now, he thought, it was even worse that they'd kidnapped the boyfriend of his friend's daughter, after they made her into some mechanized demon. He, Lorenzo, might still have held some measure of mercy and compassion even for their most bitter enemies, but…

_Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned._

That statement best summed it up. Unlike Lorenzo himself – or, for that matter, Demeter and Ceres – Freya wasn't likely to bind herself to the Assassin's Creed, not least because she wasn't technically an Assassin to begin with.

_And… hell._

_I'm not sure pissing off the most dangerous persocom in the world was a smart move on their part._

Heaving a sigh, Lorenzo exited the database and typed up new orders for his twins.

\------

_No you don't…!_

Yuzuki gritted her teeth as she struggled to ward off the blow launched at her by her assailant, the both of them locked up in a battle of attrition.

The house security systems had gotten rid of most of the persocom assassins sent to dispatch Minoru, but alas, one of them managed to make it this far. With Freya's fragment guiding her movements, Yuzuki managed to head the would-be killer off, but the lack of weapons at her disposal prevented her from managing anything more than a stalemate.

It was just lucky that Freya's gift allowed her to hold out this long. But in spite of how it had all but turned her into a copy of Freya, she not only lacked the enhancements and the weapons, but was also hampered by the fact that her battery wouldn't last forever. She might have been able to hold out for this long, but unless a miracle happened…

" _Idiot, don't space out now!_ " Freya's fragment admonished her. " _The moment you hesitate, we're done!_ "

"I know," Yuzuki muttered to herself as she knocked the enemy away with a vicious kick to the gut, "But–"

" _I'm taking control!_ "

Yuzuki could only watch as her body moved on its own. Cables shot out of the back of her head like tentacles as she laid a hand on the compartment in place of her enemy's right ear, forcing it open just enough for one of the cables to connect.

" _Perfect._ "

Yuzuki felt her lips move, but it was Freya's voice that came out. Their assailant struggled, but Yuzuki held her firmly against the heavy double doors to Minoru's bedroom. In the meantime, another set of cables burst out to wrap themselves around the enemy's neck.

" _Just keep her like this for a while–_ "

No more than a few seconds passed than Freya recalled Yuzuki's wires and cables relinquishing control of Yuzuki's body as she did so. Just then, too, the enemy went rigid, light streaking across her eyes for a second, and then glazed over as she finally went limp in Yuzuki's arms.

" _That was a close one, wasn't it?_ "

Freya's tone was casual, but Yuzuki could have sworn she heard a note of mingled relief and exhaustion somewhere.

\------

" _Mother… thank you._ "

Freya smiled at Chitose through her sister's body as the array of monitors and displays before them indicated GUNGNIR's success, before pulling her into a warm embrace.

Platinum Angel or not, even Freya had to admit that she felt a wonderful, blissful surge of relief at the fact that she and Yuzuki had managed to fend off the assassins. As with Chii, her fragment that resided in Yuzuki retained all her skills, but none of her enhancements, and it wasn't much of a help either that her enemy seemed to know all her moves. It was thanks to both Freya and Yuzuki that Minoru remained safe and sound.

At the same time, though, Freya acknowledged and was thankful for the role Chitose had played. She could tell from her mother's body language that she hadn't even wanted to use GUNGNIR, and so she was grateful for such selflessness on her mother's part. Had it not been for her mother, she and Yuzuki would most likely have been done for, back there.

And more importantly, had it not been for her mother, Minoru Kokubunji would be _dead._

" _Mother,_ " Freya said suddenly as she let go. " _Do you mind if I ask you something?_ "

This made Chitose look up. "Yes, dear Freya?"

_"Rei…"_

_"Do you approve of Rei for me, mother?"_

Freya knew that that question was rather ridiculous at the moment, given that Rei was in the hands of her enemies, but she didn't care just now. All she knew was that eventually, they'd be together again.

All she knew was that she'd get him back.

Freya would rescue the person just for her.

Even if it meant leaving a trail of bodies in her wake.

\------

The next day came.

As was his usual custom, Daniel Cross went to wake up each of his subordinates one by one, the better to get them fired up for another day's worth of training. Naturally, as the neophyte, it was Rei who would get the most unceremonious awakening.

And as was _his_ usual custom, he'd greet Daniel with a scowling face that told of sweet dreams cut short.

At least, thought Daniel as he busied himself preparing coffee for two, this was the case at first. Over the course of a mere few days, it wasn't lost on Daniel that Rei had been complaining less and less, especially with respect to the early waking hours.

His performance, too, was steadily improving, most notably when it came to the physical training. And it wasn't just that, either; Rei's performance in the Animus continued to impress, so much so that computer-controlled opponents no longer sufficed. Needless to say, his overall improvement was very noticeable indeed.

So much so, in fact, that Daniel saw fit to arrange for a little _reward_ for his latest and possibly greatest protégé.

_Yeah, I think he'll enjoy this little present of mine._

_Very much so, if I do say so myself._

Just then, though, he heard a knock on the door to his office that jolted him back to the real world. "Come on in," he called. "There's coffee here if you'd like some, too."

The door opened as one of their more recent trainees, a young woman clad in a black tanktop underneath a white coat, came in. While the features of her face were mostly Asian, her pale, blue eyes and her flaming red hair hinted at mixed parentage. Watching her, Daniel felt pleased with himself indeed.

 _Yeah, Rei, I believe you'll like_ her _very much._

"Oh hey there, Reina."

"How'd you like to be assigned to a partner?"

Daniel had to exert a conscious effort not to break into a devious smirk as he addressed the lady in front of him.


	31. Wait For Me

The Nephilim weaved in and out of the crowd as she made her way through the commercial district, allowing her to remain incognito as she stalked her target.

The data she had stored identified the target as Sonia Sabbatini, known drug queen and arms dealer. It was thanks in part to her merchandise that various areas in Africa and Asia continued to be ravaged by poverty and chaos, even as their neighbors experienced slow, but steady economic growth.

The people in her areas of operation shared common characteristics; for one thing, a bare few of the total population in these areas controlled sizable chunks of the economies of their respective countries. This was in stark contrast to the rest of the population who were mostly poor and drug dependent, in addition to being caught in tribal conflicts and turf wars fought by no less than their own children.

Capping off her list of crimes was her status as a financial backer of the Assassins. It was bad enough that her actions ran counter with Abstergo's, thought Siren as she watched the target enter a condominium – Silkwood Place, according to her internal GPS – from a safe distance away.

Ultimately, her collaboration with their mortal enemies was what led to her being marked for death.

When Siren came out of the elevator on the seventh floor, Sabbatini was but a few feet away. She no longer needed to follow; the target might become suspicious, and in any case, the information provided by their allies told her exactly where she stayed. And so it was that she went to a closet at the opposite end of the hallway, where she procured a maid outfit that had been left specifically for her.

Finally, having finished changing, she made her way to room 727, equipped with all the tools she needed for her work.

\------

The irate expression on Sonia Sabbatini's face as she greeted the maid persocom at the door was explained by the fact that she'd barely just settled in her room. She hadn't been back for half an hour, actually, she thought as she eyed the persocom like a snake would its next meal. Didn't these things come programmed with the concepts of good manners and right conduct, at least?

"Good morning, ma'am," greeted the persocom, bowing at the waist as she opened the door. "Pardon me, but a person claiming to be an associate of yours left this for you at the front desk."

Sabbatini was puzzled; she'd gone there just a while ago, and there hadn't been anything. Of course, it was possible that whoever it was missed her by just a few minutes, so…

"Oh, alright," she said to the persocom, who just stood there.

"Well?" Sabbatini prompted impatiently. "Let's have it, then!"

" _This._ "

Cables shot out of the persocom's ears like tentacles and throttled Sabbatini by the neck, lifting her bodily into the air as the persocom entered the room and closed the door behind her. She could feel the pressure on her neck intensifying as she struggled, kicking in vain at the persocom in an attempt to free herself.

"You–" Sabbatini gasped with difficulty, her vision growing black from her rapidly depleting oxygen supply, "Why me–?"

But the persocom said nothing as she pulled a silenced pistol from out of her frilly apron, cocking it before levelling it in front of her and then pulling a trigger.

A flash of light, then a burst of pain.

And the next moment, everything was gone.

\------

After locking the corpse in the bathroom – having left the pistol in her hands before propping her up on the toilet – the Nephilim opened the sliding doors to the balcony.

This first mission of hers went successfully enough, though she could probably have done with finding a more discreet way to dispatch her target. She'd been told to make it look like accident if possible, and if she were to do that, strangling Sabbatini to death probably wasn't the best choice. The way she'd left the scene, though, it passed rather convincingly for a suicide – at least, it should have.

It was moot and academic at this point, though. Regardless of how she'd done it, her first task had been completed, and _that_ , at least, counted for something.

_Mission complete._

_Returning to base._

Siren leapt off the railing, the wind whipping her face as she descended to the ground with arms wide open.

\------

By the time he entered the dining hall after the morning's training session, Rei Mikage was bruised and aching all over his body.

He wasn't _that_ resentful of the physical pain, thought Rei as he looked over the ham and cheese sandwich that comprised today's lunch. After all, it was to be expected that his training would inevitably include hand-to-hand combat. And besides, it wasn't as if he was a complete novice there anyway, given how his past self had gotten into all those fights.

It wasn't that he resented being beaten on, either. Rei realized perfectly well that the road he had chosen was not an all an easy or painless one, and Daniel had been kind enough to warn him ahead of time in any case. He understood that if he wished to become like Daniel and his crew, he needed the endurance and perseverance to make it through such trials. No pain, no gain, they said; therefore, by the same logic, a lot of pain equated to a lot of gain.

If nothing else, thought Rei, there was nothing he was experiencing now that his new comrades hadn't experienced before. Getting beaten in sparring sessions was hardly worth getting so worked up over, after all.

Rather, what did irritate Rei, was exactly _who_ had beaten him.

For today, his opponent was some cute, red-haired girl; Reina, Pinocchio had called her. Her bright, cheerful demeanor couldn't but remind him of Freya's sister, and she also contained something of Shana in that she had a penchant for acting all cutesy and insisting on her own way, and then complaining loudly when she didn't get it. _Oh look, it's some hyperactive schoolgirl type, I'm sure she's nothing_ –

Needless to say, getting beaten by a girl like that, was utterly _embarrassing._

"Hey Rei, why don't you join us over here?"

Rei looked up from his lunch where, two tables in front of him, Daniel, Pinocchio and Mancini were waving at him and gesturing at him to join them.

"C'mon, you!" Daniel called. "It's not cool to be such a loner all the time!"

He sighed to himself as he transferred to their table and sit next to Pinocchio.

"Something the matter, Rei?" he asked, glancing at him as he cut up a slice of meat, "You seem sulky for some reason. You're not upset, are you?"

Rei merely grunted, giving a noncommittal answer in response to his comrade's inquiry as he took a large bite out of his sandwich. He definitely resented being beaten by a girl, but he wasn't petty enough to gripe about it. And besides, it was his pride–

_Wait, what?_

A certain redheaded girl entered the dining hall and got her lunch, before walking over to their table. Much to Rei's chagrin, Daniel gestured for her to take her seat across him; it was all he could do to fiddle with the songs on his mobile phone to avoid having to look at her. Still, their eyes met for a moment, enough time for her to flash him a cute, yet somewhat seductive smile.

 _Well, she_ is _kinda cute…_

 _Oh shut it, you_ –

"Oh, I haven't introduced you two yet, have I?" Daniel remarked offhandedly. "This is Reina Carmine. She joined us around the same time you did, Rei."

"I see," Rei nodded. "Well, I suppose I'll see you around, Reina?"

Her response was a flirtatious wink and a V sign, which caused Daniel and the others to chuckle. Rei couldn't help but think that something was up, judging from their reactions. It was as if they were enjoying this somehow. Like they were having a laugh at his expense.

And the next words out of Daniel's mouth only served to confirm it.

"You'll take care of her, won't you, Rei? You'll be partners from now on."

Rei bit his tongue.

"Oh, yeah. 'Scuse me, guys, I got something to attend to."

Daniel could barely choke back his laughter as he walked away.

\------

Meanwhile, in the Kokubunji mansion's basement laboratory…

"Intruders last night?"

Yuzuki nodded in response to the question posed by Minoru as they stood before a long table, on which lay the same persocom she and Freya had personally disabled the night before, its arms and legs securely shackled. Beside her lay a pair of bracers she knew contained hidden blades, as well as at least half a dozen knives, each half a foot long.

It was just lucky she'd managed to hold out long enough for Freya to disable this enemy, otherwise…

Yuzuki didn't even want to think about it.

"Yes, Lord Minoru," she finally replied to his earlier inquiry. "There were at least six of them, but the house security systems dealt with the others. This one," she gestured at the figure lying before them, "Miss Freya helped me disable."

Which was true, in a manner of speaking; it was thanks to Freya's gift that she'd been able to put up a fight at all, while it was Freya herself who did whatever it was that finally forced this enemy of theirs to shut down.

"She suggested that we reprogram this persocom, actually."

"What for, though?" Minoru asked.

Yuzuki told him.

"I see."

Analyzing the data she'd wrested from this one shortly before Freya shut her down told Yuzuki that this thing had been designed to support the offspring of the so-called Project Nephilim. The designation – _PND-000_ – could have told her that by itself.

What Freya had done had caused it not only to shut down, but to reset upon activation. The programming that had driven it to kill Minoru had been erased, along with all the combat data it had also possessed. As it was now, it was a blank slate, to be reprogrammed and remade by Minoru as he saw fit.

Yuzuki had a feeling she knew what Freya was planning. While Freya hadn't spelled out her reasons behind that particular suggestion, Yuzuki figured that Freya intended for them to reprogram this persocom, not just to erase its ties to Abstergo, but to spare it what Freya would have gone through had she not escaped.

" _Yeah, that's pretty much it,_ " said Freya's fragment that resided in her.

" _I can't allow them to have more monsters like me running around._ "

Freya's voice was matter-of-fact as she said that. Nevertheless, Yuzuki was sure she could detect a hint of sorrow in the words.

\------

An hour had passed since Siren dispatched her first target, and still she saw no signs of the police as she made her way through the streets.

Not that she was surprised; the way she'd done the job, it'd take at least a day before they'd notice something was wrong, and slightly longer to actually find the body there. Probably even longer than that, if their inside man had anything to say about it.

Either way, it was only her first hit. Satisfied as she was at her success, Siren realized that much remained to be done. She had a total of five targets, and Sabbatini had been of the lowest priority among them. She had neither the time nor the right to revel in her achievement, not while those four other targets yet drew breath.

_Mother._

_Will you be proud of me?_

As she made her way back to her mother, the Nephilim wondered just what her mother's answer to that question would be.

\------

"Rei…" whispered Freya as she traversed the rooftops, her white robes fluttering around her.

"I'm here."

Her travel time was short, as she'd arrived at her destination before she even knew it.

"I'll get you out of there. I promise."

Freya looked up at the mansion before her; Chateau Solange, it was called. It was his face that she saw, however, even as she continued to stare at the white walls. With some difficulty, she calmed herself, the better to focus on the task at hand. If all went well, she'd see him again, for real, soon enough.

 _Wait for me, Rei_ –

"Oh, hi there, Freya," said a voice.

"Don't worry about Rei; we're taking good care of him."

Freya felt herself flare up with rage as she turned to face Daniel Cross, standing before her with a faux-affable grin on his face.


	32. A Familiar Presence

_Wait, what?_

Rei, who had been on his way back to his room for another round in the Animus, stopped suddenly as he felt a familiar presence.

_Freya…?_

Not a day had passed since he'd joined up with Daniel and friends that Rei didn't think of her, but it wasn't until now that he'd felt her presence this way. Perhaps it was because of the stupid trick Daniel pulled on him, pairing him up with Nena like that, but…

_No._

_Remember why you accepted Daniel's offer in the first place, Rei._

_Wasn't it because you wanted the power to protect her?_

Gritting his teeth, Rei continued on to his room. He'd see her soon enough.

For now, he'd take out his frustrations in the Animus, if nothing else.

\------

_So, you couldn't resist, then._

"Welcome to Chateau Solange, Freya," Daniel gestured toward the mansion as though he was a tour guide welcoming her to some historic monument. "We've been expecting you, you know."

Which was literally true. As early as a week ago, Daniel had already been going outside every few hours, on the off-chance that Freya would try to retrieve Rei. She hadn't shown up, though, much to his mingled puzzlement and disappointment; in fact, he was beginning to think that the Nephilim had gotten to her first.

_Guess I was wrong on that one, though._

"You…" Freya's voice was calm, but the hostility and the killing intent emanating from it were unmistakable. Indeed, Daniel was surprised she hadn't yet extended her hidden blades and tried to kill him. "Why did you kidnap Rei? We both know I'm the one you're after!" she demanded.

"Hey, Freya?" Daniel tilted his head in mock puzzlement. "What're you talking about?"

"I didn't kidnap him. I made him an offer and he freely accepted it, or didn't he tell you that?"

"There's really no need to be worried about Rei, Freya." Daniel's smile was one of mocking reassurance as he said this. "Your dear boyfriend is doing pretty well with us."

And then his smile contorted into a malicious smirk.

"We've been taking good care of him, too. Hell, we actually like him… some of us more than others, if you know what I mean."

At the words, Freya's eyes widened in horror.

_Don't tell me–!_

"I told her that Rei was already taken, and I've no doubts about his loyalty to you, but I'm not sure that'll stop her," Daniel remarked offhandedly. "Reina's never let things like that get in her way before…"

Daniel's laughter was loud and mocking, and this only intensified when Freya slapped him across the face, angry tears flowing down her cheeks. It wasn't until she grabbed him by the neck with one hand that he stopped, and even then, his smirk broadened instead.

"Oh, I'm sorry Freya, did I upset you…?" Daniel asked, both hands clamping onto Freya's right wrist as he tried to get her to release him. "C'mon, lighten up already! I was just joking!"

Freya ignored this.

"Daniel Cross."

Again Freya's tone was level, but she said his name as if it were a particularly nasty expletive. The fury radiating from her had by now become all but palpable. If looks could kill, he would have died at least nine thousand times over.

"You turned me into this monster and stole the one I love," she growled, her left arm drawn back as she extended her hidden blade, "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here?!"

Freya tensed up as she prepared to land the killing blow; she'd meant every word she said. She was fully ready to kill this smug bastard for what he'd done…

…but why was he grinning like that?

"Freya," Daniel said, as though admonishing a child for throwing a tantrum, "I've actually grown fond of Rei. Most of my comrades have, too. And besides, his training should be done in a few weeks, so there's really no reason for you to worry as far as he's concerned."

"But if you kill me here," Daniel went on, smirking as before, "I can't trust them not to take it out on him. I mean, my men might have grown fond of Rei, but the other guys at Abstergo might not be so forgiving…"

Freya continued to glare at him, even as she retracted her left arm hidden blade.

_You scum–!_

"I'm sure you understand, don't you, Freya?"

"They won't be able to hurt my dear subordinate while I'm still breathing, but I can't speak for what happens afterward."

Slowly, she let go of him.

Daniel fixed the collar of his shirt as though nothing happened.

"Don't worry, though; I'll tell Rei you came calling."

Freya made no verbal reply as she stalked away, throwing him one last look of deathless hatred before vanishing.

Finally, after breathing a sigh of relief, Daniel went back inside.

_Good thing that went well…_

\------

_Darling…_

_Freya's found someone to love._

_I'm sure you're happy wherever you are, right?_

Chitose Hibiya thought of her late husband as she stood there, looking at their old family photo she kept on top of her dressing table while attending to today's chores. Just last night, Freya had come to her for assistance, even having to borrow her sister's body in order to do so.

Chitose being who she was, she was happy her daughter thought to visit her, even if she could have picked a better time. The fact that her daughter remembered her was already enough to make her happy. Between a Freya who thought nothing of disturbing her in the wee hours of the morning, and a Freya who didn't even recognize or remember her, she definitely preferred the former.

_But despite that, she still seems rather sad…_

That said, she could tell Freya was troubled.

And in more ways than one, too.

It wasn't just because of the attempt on Minoru's life, that much was certain. Freya was undoubtedly concerned about him, which was why she'd come here in the first place, but that was easily explained by a debt of gratitude she was sure her daughter felt driven to discharge, on top of her unlikely rapport with Yuzuki. And even then, she'd managed to remain perfectly calm and controlled all throughout.

It wasn't just because of her request to use GUNGNIR's power, either, although again, that in itself was enough to give Chitose pause. For one thing, Freya wasn't even supposed to know about GUNGNIR to begin with. And even granting that that person had programmed the information relating to GUNGNIR into her…

And then, Freya asked her _that_ question.

_Mother…_

_Do you approve of Rei for me, mother?_

Chitose had taken it for granted at the time, but Freya was crying as she said it.

It couldn't be that Rei Mikage treated her badly; the question itself ruled out that possibility. Freya quite obviously loved him very much to have asked that question, which probably meant that he treated her well. Indeed, if Mr. Motosuwa was to be believed, their relationship was not unlike that between him and Chii. Maybe even closer, judging from what he said about them going on dates with a baby in tow.

But if that was the case, why was her daughter crying like that?

_Oh, Freya…_

A loud rapping on the door snapped Chitose out of her rambling thoughts.

"One moment, please," she called.

Chitose opened the door, only to find one of the people she least expected to see.

Standing in the hallway was a tall, dark and handsome Italian man in a sharp business suit, smiling at her as he let himself in her apartment.

The last time she'd met him was at least five years ago, back when her husband was still alive, but he didn't seem to have changed much. Sure, he'd become more rugged since then, and he seemed to have put on some muscle as well, but those changes were superficial at best. For one thing, the twinkle in his blue eyes was the same as it had always been, as had that winning smile that had once won the heart of her high school best friend.

"Hi there, Chitose," Lorenzo Auditore greeted, flashing a set of even, white teeth as he beamed at her. "You seem to be doing well these days."

"It's been way too long since we last met, wouldn't you say?"

\------

Today was a school holiday for Hideki, who lay alone in his bed – Chii having gone to work for today – as he reflected on the events that had transpired recently.

To him, it was as if the whole world was slowly slipping into madness.

First it was Kojima coming over one early evening, just after he'd gotten home from college, begging for forgiveness for what he'd done and for Kotoko to be returned to him. Hideki acquiesced, once he'd gotten over the initial shock; he surmised that Kotoko must have been that important to him, for him to act so unlike himself back there. And if nothing else, Kojima had at least redeemed himself somewhat through his assistance to Minoru that time.

And then, not long after, Chii's sister came back from the dead.

_Freya..._

Hideki had met Freya once before, but that one meeting was enough to emphasize the differences between Freya and her sister. Even back then, she'd struck Hideki as being the dark and moody twin, the night to Chii's day. If Chii was the light, Freya was the darkness.

Then again, 'dark' didn't necessarily mean 'evil'.

_What did I give Chii?_

_You could say I gave her my soul – part of it, anyway._

Freya's words, from their little altercation at Tirol, suddenly came back to haunt him now.

Even now Hideki had some misgivings about what Freya had done, but even he knew that it was arguably the most practical thing to do in this situation. Chii's status as one of the Chobits was enough to attract unwanted attention by itself, and was further aggravated by the fact that her twin sister had been remodelled into arguably the most lethal persocom in existence. And despite his own vow to protect her, there wasn't much he could do if it came down to it.

_Believe me, Motosuwa, I don't like this anymore than you do._

Regardless of his feelings on the matter, even Hideki had to admit that Chii becoming a lesser copy of her sister would at least allow her a substantial degree of safety. He just hoped it would be enough.

For Freya's sake, as well as for his own.

\------

Meanwhile, back in the Mikage house…

"It's nice to see you both."

Ceres gazed warily at the two leather-clad persocoms – the National Databank and his bodyguard – seated on the couch right across them. She'd found them already waiting for them in the living room when she went to check, and so misidentified them as intruders, pulling out twin pistols from inside her apron and pointing them at the intruders. Had it not been for Freya - who had arrived in the meantime, and who now stood on the wall as she looked on - she would have blown their heads to pieces.

"Hey!" interjected the female, glaring back at her with red eyes, "who the hell do you think you are, anyway?"

"You make us come all this way, and this is how you welcome us?"

At which point her sister came down and cleared things up. Needless to say, it was a shock when Demeter introduced them as allies.

"Designation EDEN-01D/C," said the male aloud as he removed his headpiece, "otherwise known as Ceres and Demeter of the Eden series. By the way, Ceres, I saw what you did in that alleyway," he added, eliciting a suspicious stare from her and an exasperated facepalm from his partner.

"It was nice of you to save her," he inclined his head toward Nanako, who blushed, "back there. She probably thinks so, too, considering how she acts toward you," he went on with a mischievous grin, snickering to himself as Ceres pursed her lips.

"So, tell me, Ceres, are you an item, or what?"

"Get to the point already," Ceres demanded, one hand reaching into her apron where she'd kept her guns. "Who are you, how did you know my name, and what the _hell_ do you want?"

Sure enough, his laughter faded. He cleared his throat as he put his headpiece back on. "I'm Zima, and this is Dita. Do excuse my earlier… impertinence, if you will."

"How about we help you get _him_ back to make up for it?"

Even from where she was sitting, Ceres could see Freya glare hard at them, not that she could blame her.

Not in the least.


	33. It's Not Too Late

Daniel Cross stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom as he woke with a start, having revisited the events of _that_ mission in his dreams for the first time in a long time.

He could still recall, in great detail, how he and his team had raided that Assassin safehouse, only to find it completely deserted. He still remembered the faint smell of ammonia in the hallways, how he'd ordered his team to head back while he stayed behind to search. And of course, he could still visualize with perfect clarity that familiar strand of long, reddish-brown hair he'd just happened to notice lying on one of the beds.

Indeed; it had been nearly 20 years ago, but Daniel still remembered it like it was just yesterday.

And sure enough...

_Daniel..._

He heard Hannah's voice in his head, disbelieving and pleading, just as clear as it had been that day. He could still see her in front of him, arms spread wide, as she implored him to return with her to the Assassins.

Indeed, he could feel himself level his silenced Operator at her face all over again, his hands shaking as he tried to force himself to shoot.

_"But Daniel, why?" Hannah Mueller demanded, the tremor in her voice telling him she was on the verge of tears. "Didn't those two years mean anything to you? You of all people should know what the Templars are like!"_

_"I know you're better than this! We know what Abstergo did to you!"_

_Daniel felt a mixture of astonishment and discomfort at how much she knew, though still he said nothing._

_To put it briefly, they'd strapped him to an operating table and probed his mind as to the locations of the Assassins' training camps. Daniel didn't exactly give them that information, though he saw no point in resisting their mind probe, either. In the eyes of the Assassins - and, indeed, in the eyes of Daniel himself - he was a traitor who repaid their hospitality with treachery when he murdered the Mentor. Abstergo didn't seem to regard him any better either, if that was any indication._

_"I know what they did to you!" the woman who had been his constant companion - and who he came to regard with fond affection - persisted in front of him, recalling him to his surroundings. "It's not too late, you can still come back-"_

_The rest of her words were drowned out by a loud bang._

_The stone wall behind Hannah cracked as the bullet struck, leaving a fracture at the point of impact. The gun was still smoking in Daniel's trembling hands as he lowered it and, breathing hard as though he'd just run a mile, tucked it back in his pants._

_"It's alright, Daniel," Hannah reassured him as she dared to take a step forward, though the way her voice continued to shake made it clear that she didn't even know whether this was the right thing to do. "It's not too late. You can still come back to us, where you belong."_

_Daniel bowed his head. Much as he hated to admit it, those words got to him somehow. He hadn't chosen for Vidic to tamper with his mind like that, nor did he choose to have all those hallucinations of his ancestor's life. And he sure as hell hadn't asked for Abstergo to strap him down to that operating table and sift through his memories at their leisure._

_Indeed, had he anywhere else to go, Daniel Cross wouldn't even be at Abstergo._

_"Hannah..."_

_More importantly, Daniel hadn't forgotten how the Assassins – how Hannah – had helped him out of the gutter, had taken him in just as his life hit rock bottom. Even when the rest of them thought his search for the Mentor was pointless, she stayed by his side all the way through. And even now, she still believed he was worth saving, or she wouldn't even be here._

_Maybe Hannah was right. Maybe he could still go back._

_Maybe it wasn't too late for him after all._

_"Hannah, I…"_

_On the other hand, Daniel did kill the Mentor; there was no point denying it. The kindly old man who had been the leader of the Assassin Order had considered training him as his eventual successor, only for his generosity to be repaid by Daniel with treachery. He, Daniel, was a traitor of the highest order; surely there would be no forgiveness for what he had done. No ifs, ands or buts about it._

_For his act of betrayal, Daniel Cross would die._

_At least, he would, if there was any justice in the world._

_"Hannah… I'm sorry."_

_On the other hand, while he accepted death as his due, he wanted to at least redeem himself in some way before the price of his betrayal inevitably caught up with him._

_"It's too late for me now," Daniel said sadly as he drew his gun a second time._

_Hannah cowered as he fired, leaving another bullet hole in the wall mere inches from where the first was. He then lowered it to his side as he met her eyes, fixing her with a look that made it clear he would not be moved._

_"Cross here," he said as he cupped his hand on the left side of his headpiece. "We were too late. Return to base."_

_"Daniel, what-?"_

_"Hannah," Daniel's voice was regretful, but firm, as he regarded her with a piercing and unflinching gaze. "Get out of here now. Hide with the rest of the Assassins and hope to God we don't find you. Because if we do meet again, I can't promise it'll end the same way."_

_"But-"_

_"ENOUGH ALREADY! GET THE **** OUT OF MY FACE OR I SWEAR THE NEXT ONE WON'T MISS!"_

_These next words came out of Daniel's mouth with such force that Hannah couldn't help but take a step back, even before he raised the gun a third time. A look of mingled pain, despair and sorrow flitted across her face as tears threatened to spill from her eyes._

_"Goodbye, Daniel."_

_With that last farewell, Hannah Mueller turned her back on him and ran. And as she did so, Daniel heard what sounded suspiciously like a sob being choked back._

At times he still wondered why he couldn't bring himself to kill her. And whenever he did, he'd rationalize it as best he could. Time and again he told himself that she wasn't at all an important figure in the Assassin Order, and that she had no need to die.

_But is that even the truth, Daniel?_

"Enough," Daniel told himself firmly as he sat up on the bed, shaking his head to clear away the sudden rush of memories. There was no changing the past now; the rough send-off he'd given her would make sure of that. For one thing, it would be little more than a waste of time; if Hannah was as smart as he remembered, she'd taken him at his word and made herself impossible to find.

And besides, thought Daniel, he still had a mission to accomplish, and he couldn't afford to lose sight of it now.

\------

"He seems to be behaving himself," Reina Carmine spoke into her cellphone as she reported to her superior. "At least, he has, so far."

She was well aware of the signal jammers Daniel had placed around the area. However, what he didn't know was that her phone had been modified – by Abstergo, of course – such that it would work despite the presence of such devices. No less than Dr. Warren Vidic himself commissioned its development, the better to aid her in her duties.

"That's reassuring," came the voice of her boss. "Still, Reina, keep an eye on him, won't you? I know he's Abstergo's hero, but he's been acting very strange lately."

Daniel had become rather disagreeable as of late, thought Reina as she acknowledged the order, especially on the matter of Project Nephilim. He made no secret of it whatsoever, even badmouthing Vidic and his co-members in the Inner Sanctum to their faces. It was precisely the reason she'd been assigned to Daniel's team, the better to keep him in check should he get any ideas about betraying them – though, of course, he hadn't been told of that part.

They all knew of his surprisingly good relationships with his subordinates, but they'd never expected him to lash out so vehemently over the unfortunate casualties incurred as a result of the ill-fated Project Seraph. It was well-known, too, that his team suffered the greatest losses during that incident, but somehow they still managed to underestimate his closeness with his troops. And while the same incident guaranteed that he would continue to act on Abstergo's behalf at least where their rogue creation – Freya, she had called herself – was concerned, his newfound rebelliousness was sufficient to set them on edge.

"Report back to me should anything come up. In the worst case, we'll have Triple-Zero and her drones assigned to your command."

"What about Rei?" Reina asked, referring to the boy Daniel had assumedly recruited into their ranks.

"Watch him closely, too. Should the worst-case scenario come true, you're to bring him to the Far Eastern Branch and... persuade him into working with us."

"I leave it to you and your talents, Reina. I trust you won't let me down."

With that, her boss severed the connection, leaving a wicked smile on Reina's lips as she formulated her schemes.

\------

_What's that jackass playing at?_

Such were Rei's thoughts as he laid in his bed that night, the noise of the outside world drowned out by the song blaring through his headphones.

All afternoon he'd been in the Animus, practicing and honing his skills as a form of stress relief. So far, today hadn't been his day at all. He'd had his ass handed to him by a girl first thing in the morning, only to find out Daniel had paired the both of them up as partners. Needless to say, Rei was less than amused by what he perceived as Daniel making fun of him, and so decided to vent out his frustrations.

He really didn't see why he couldn't have been paired with someone he actually got along with – like either Mancini or Pinocchio, both of whom he'd struck up an odd friendship with since his arrival here. They were the ones who'd helped him through his first few sessions in the Animus Virtual Training Program. Likewise, the three of them always worked together during the morning exercises, the two veterans usually acting as a mixture of coach and mentor to him.

If he, Rei, were to be paired up with anyone, it would have made the most sense for his partner to have been either of those two.

But instead of his seniors, Daniel decided to pair Rei up with some random chick he hardly knew.

_Idiot._

Rei knew he was being rather unfair to Reina by judging her like that, but he couldn't help but suspect her. For some reason, there was something about her that rubbed her the wrong way. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but his gut told him that he would come to regret it if ever he made the mistake of dropping his guard around her.

_Get some sleep already, Rei. Not much you can do, anyway._

Rei turned to face the wall as he wrapped himself even more tightly in his blanket, the better to help him fall asleep.

_Just a little longer…_

Indeed, thought Rei, the month would be over before he knew it. And when it ended, he'd finally be able to return home to where Freya was.

In the meantime, all he had to do was keep calm, grit his teeth and then make it through this.

\------

Elsewhere, in a certain mansion belonging to a known child prodigy, a pair of vivid blue eyes opened to see the lights shining brightly above her for the first time.

Slowly, she sat up on the makeshift operating table on which she had been laid out. As she did so, she was greeted by the visage of a certain custom-made persocom in a frilly French maid outfit, one with dark, cobalt eyes that complemented the long, blue hair she kept tied with her ribbons. Looking at her fellow persocom, she got the impression that she'd been there for a while, standing watch over her.

Smiling gently, Yuzuki felt an odd sense of fulfilment at the sight she beheld. It seemed so long ago that the bright blue eyes before her now were dull and soulless, the unseeing gaze of a cold killing machine given human form. Now, however, the same blue eyes radiated a kind of innocence that convinced her of the rightness of what she and Freya had done – of taking this one in, of giving her another chance.

And when the reborn persocom spoke to her, in the voice of an innocent child greeting the world for the first time, it was but one word.

"Mama."

One word, but one that would nonetheless change Yuzuki's life forever.


	34. The Answer

"So, Chitose, how _have_ you been lately?" Lorenzo Auditore asked the next day, not long after he awoke on the couch in Chitose Hibiya's living room.

The last time he'd seen her, Icchan was still alive, and they hadn't gotten married yet. Though he did have other motives for coming here, he figured he'd catch up with his old friend before getting down to business.

"I'm fine, thank you," she answered, smiling graciously at her handsome Italian houseguest. "Lots of things happened, actually..."

Lorenzo listened to her stories, albeit only with half of his brain. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in her life, but they had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. And so it was that while Chitose spoke, Lorenzo took the time to reflect on the recent turn of events as relayed to him by his twins.

So, Zima and Dita had offered to help get Rei back - a most welcome development, he thought. It wasn't a surprise, though. Regardless of his demeanor, Zima was actually as decent as it was possible for a persocom to be. Discharging debts of gratitude was perfectly in character for him, especially considering just [i]how[/i] Lorenzo and Demeter had helped them out in the past.

"And then just recently I found that my daughter Freya was still alive-"

_Well, well. What a coincidence, Chitose, I was getting to that._

"Yeah, I heard," Lorenzo nodded as he grinned at her. "And she found a boyfriend of her own, right? C'mon, Chitose, don't look so surprised," he added as she flinched; apparently she hadn't expected him to know that much. "Of course I'd know. It was my wife's family that took her in, after all."

"To be exact, it was my brother-in-law's idea. And my daughters also seem to like Freya, from what they've told me. I haven't met her yet, but they've told me mostly good things about her, so I'll take their word for it."

Which was true. Ceres had already mentioned how at ease Oyuki was with Freya, and for that matter, Ceres herself had also assured him of her heart being in the right place. Demeter, on the other hand, had told him that she would be watching her closely, but that was to be expected. They'd just met, after all, and just because Ceres seemed to like Freya wasn't a guarantee that the same would hold true for her twin.

At any rate, thought Lorenzo, if his wife and daughters trusted her, Freya at least deserved a chance from him.

"That's good to know," said Chitose, an easy smile on her face as she took a sip from her cup of tea. "Freya's always been a sweet girl, but I was afraid she might not be the same after what was done to her. From what you've told me, though, it looks like she hasn't really changed that much."

"Now, then, Lorenzo, what brings you here? I hope it's something I can help you with," she offered.

_Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is._

"You wouldn't happen to still have Icchan's old files on hand, would you?" Lorenzo asked casually. "On Freya and on the Eden series, to be exact?"

"But why?" Chitose asked, curious. Seeing as Lorenzo's adopted daughters were persocoms of the Eden series, she would have thought that he already knew them inside out. His desire for information on Freya was slightly more understandable, but given the extent of Regenschirm's modifications, what information she had on her daughter might not even be that relevant anymore. Why, then-?

And then the answer came to her, almost as if out of nowhere.

"...Right, then," Chitose nodded, going over to open the entrance to her secret lab.

"Follow me, please, Lorenzo. And please, do watch your step on the way down."

\------

Kotoko sat in front of Kojima's desk in his bedroom, reviewing her – their – daughter's recent movements on his laptop.

For the second time in a week, Siren had been sent to dispatch another target: Lee Sang-woo, gun runner and head of a powerful crime family in Korea. According to the dossier, Lee dealt in weapons of all shapes and sizes, though he specialized in high powered firearms. His family's activities also tended to involve direct conflict with Abstergo, and indeed, Lee had been responsible for derailing and sabotaging some of Abstergo's more important operations.

Like Sonia Sabbatini before him, however, it seemed that what really got Lee Sang-woo killed was his collaboration with the Assassin Order.

According to the dossier, the Assassins themselves had marked Lee for death for his activities, but chose to spare him after he had offered to place himself and his organization at their disposal. And ever since then, Lee had become an even more persistent thorn in Abstergo's side. While in the past his interests had only happened to clash with those of Abstergo, it seemed that he'd since gone out of his way to antagonize them. It didn't do him any favors either that he sold his merchandise to the Assassins at discounted prices, but it was clear just what Lee did that brought Siren down on his head.

Kotoko let out a snort of disgust as she exited the program, not caring for the more graphic details of her daughter's kill.

It was true that Siren's targets so far seemed to be limited to those who arguably deserved it. Sonia Sabbatini had been known for perpetuating the unrest plaguing developing countries in Africa and Asia, while Lee appeared to have gone out of his way to incur Abstergo's wrath. She might not have agreed that they deserved to die, but she certainly wouldn't shed any tears on their account.

On the other hand, while Kotoko had little sympathy for her daughter's victims, she could never be convinced to approve of the things Abstergo was making her do. Not only did Warren Vidic in particular see her as nothing but a soulless killing machine, he'd actually gone out of his way to badmouth Kojima in front of the both of them.

And besides, she'd devised a countermeasure, to be used in case the suits at Abstergo tried to hurt her or either of her loved ones. It wasn't at all something Kotoko wanted to use, but if they forced her hand, she'd make absolutely sure it was the last mistake they'd ever make. She just hoped it wouldn't come to that, for all their sakes.

For now, though…

Kotoko closed her eyes as she found the answer.

Her eyes glazed over as she retreated into her mind to access her mailbox, upon which she sent an email, with an attached file, to 'M'. And a second later, she forwarded the same email to two more users.

_I'm counting on you all._

Kotoko knew she probably wouldn't be able to stop Siren, her own daughter, from carrying out her grim work. Right now, it was all she could do to trust Kojima's friends – her friends – to do it in her stead.

\------

"'Mama'?"

"Miss Freya, was this your idea?" Yuzuki muttered to herself while attending to her tasks.

Right now, the blue-haired persocom was busy preparing lunch for Minoru while performing some routine maintenance on the many systems she was tasked to oversee. She still hadn't gotten over what happened earlier, when the persocom they'd captured called her 'Mama'. And since neither Minoru nor herself had done so, that left only one possible culprit.

" _What's wrong?_ " came the voice of Freya in your head. " _You don't like it? I thought you'd already come to terms with your feelings for dear Minoru. I've simply given you a way to bring you together._ "

"Yes, I did, but that's not the point!" Yuzuki protested, flustered. "It's too early for me to be someone's mother, and Minoru – what'll he think-?"

" _Silly Yuzuki,_ " Freya's laugh was devoid of any humor whatsoever; if anything, Yuzuki heard that note of sorrow again. " _You really ought to be more honest with yourself. It's not like your feelings aren't reciprocated, you know. I've seen the way he looks at you, and I know what I'm talking about. I could ask him if he loved you, and the answer would probably be yes._ "

"[i]If you love someone, you really ought to go and tell them,[/i]" Freya's fragment admonished her. "[i]Don't keep it bottled up inside until it's too late. Feelings don't carry across by being kept hidden, you know. Get it memorized, before you learn the hard way like I did-[/i]"

Freya's statement was cut, however, as Yuzuki made to look at the new email she'd received. Indeed, the matter of who the sender was piqued her interest almost as much as the message itself.

Because of all people who could have sent Yuzuki an email on Project Nephilim, Kotoko was probably the last person she would have expected to do so.

\------

Meanwhile, back at the Mikage house's living room…

"WHAT did you just say?!"

Shana leapt from the couch at what Nanako had said, with such force that the glass of water on the table fell over, spilling water all over the place.

"Nana, you're lying! There's no way! Right, Freya? Ceres?" she looked beseechingly from one to the other as she waited for the answer, both of whom were seated on either side of Nanako right across her. Unfortunately, the grim expressions worn by both persocoms weren't the least bit reassuring.

"There's no way Rei would've let himself get kidnapped!" Shana persisted desperately. "I mean, really! It's just-"

At which point Freya reached across the table and placed both hands on her shoulders, gently gripping them before letting go the next moment. Likewise, the way Ceres shook her head once told Shana that what Nanako had just said was no joke. Of the persons currently in the room, Freya and Ceres were likely the ones who cared about Rei the most. And if they hadn't refuted what Nanako had said…

Shana sank back into the sofa in disbelief, mouth hanging slightly open as she did so.

"But… how?" she asked, clearly perturbed. "That guy – Daniel Cross, his name was – said the school was sending him to some super special training camp…"

Freya thought it made quite a bit of sense. Of course they'd have had to come up with some kind of pretext as to why Rei had disappeared. It probably helped that Abstergo had such a good reputation among the general public. In fact, knowing them, it was likely that some of the personnel at St. Benedict's Academy were actually affiliated or even part of Abstergo.

Finally, Freya decided to speak up. As someone who cared for Rei almost as much as she and Ceres did, Shana deserved to know just what had happened. And for that matter, she probably deserved to know about her as well.

"Technically, what he said was completely true. They said they'd train Rei, turn him into some kind of ninja or something. Remember that accident at the stairs? They must've used it to convince him, somehow. It was their way of getting to me," Freya added bitterly.

"Daniel probably told him he was weak, and that he'd help him become stronger," Freya fell silent at this last bit as she recalled, painfully, what Rei had told her in his letter. Her hesitation was brief, though; just as it had been that night at the Kokubunji mansion, every secret she confided in someone else felt like a burden being lifted from her shoulders.

"He told me all about it in a letter. Because he loved me, he said, he wanted to protect me… Even though he knew full well that was my job."

The silence that had fallen between the two was palpable. Shana's eyes darted between the three in front of her – Ceres, Nanako and Freya – as she processed what she'd just heard. There was something in Freya's words that got her thinking…

"Freya," Shana said gently, her voice faint but resolute. "Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

"You're our friend, just as much as Rei is. You know that, right?"

Freya considered it. On one hand, she didn't want to involve Rei's friends in this mess, any more than they already were. But then, she thought, they were concerned for him just as surely as she was, otherwise Shana wouldn't even be here. If Rei trusted his friends, there was no reason for her not to do the same.

"As a matter of fact, Shana, there is."

She just hoped they wouldn't think too badly of her afterward.

"You might want to make yourself comfortable, though – my story might not be that pleasant to hear."

Oddly enough, though, the decision came to Freya much more easily than she'd expected. She'd grown tired of all the secrets isolating her from everyone else. It was the reason she'd never been able to connect to anyone but Rei for the longest time. And the fact that he'd been taken from her, right under her nose, was proof that communication was key to relationships – and that, at times, poor communication had disastrous consequences.

 _And besides_ , thought Freya, _it's long past time that I revealed my true self._


	35. Under Her Thrall

Later that day, Rei went and accessed the Animus like he usually did.

As usual, he went for a few rounds of Wanted, where, as The Sentinel, he took on the computer, and then on some of his fellow trainees, in digital recreations of various locations. From Renaissance-era Rome, to Colonial America's Fort Wolcott, he tested his skills in all sorts of virtual battlefields – as a form of stress relief, but more importantly as a way of further honing his skills. The good news was that by this point, his skills had progressed to the point that he was second only to one person in the current batch of rookies.

The bad news, however…

_Reina…_

Ever since Reina Carmine made her debut, Rei felt perpetually on edge. Not only had she continued to outperform him in both parts of the training, there was also something in her perpetually sunny demeanor that he couldn't get out of his head. Nor did it help that he did find her cute – not that he would ever admit it.

To wit, Reina was very forward in her attempts to know more about him. And again, he thought as he finished the current round by dispatching one of his fellow trainees with an aerial assassination, the way she reacted when she didn't get her way reminded him strongly of Shana. For that matter, he'd also had a brief crush on Shana herself during their first year, but had since come to view more as a mixture of mother and sister than a potential love interest.

The fact of the matter was, thought Rei as he exited the Animus, he would have considered Reina a godsend had she appeared sooner – by a year or so, to be exact. But now that he had Freya…

"You shouldn't be spending too much time in the Animus, silly. Don't you know it's bad for you?"

Reina Carmine's smiling face greeted him as he opened his eyes.

"Reina?!" Rei spluttered, leaping up from the Animus as though he'd received a particularly nasty electric shock. "What – why – _what the hell d'you think you're doing?_ "

Reina's brilliant blue eyes narrowed as she glared reproachfully at Rei for the expletive that was blurted out at her. "Really, is that any way to greet a girl? I'll have you know I went out of my way to make dinner for you!"

Sure enough, there was a tray on his beside table, laden with a bowl full of what looked like chicken risotto. It wasn't bad, either, thought Rei as he sat down on the bed and tried it. Indeed, for all his unease about her, even Rei had to admit that Reina was a pretty good cook.

"Daniel and the others cleaned out all the food a while back, and I thought you might be getting hungry after spending all afternoon in that thing," she explained as she sat right next to him. "You really ought to be more appreciative, Rei. It's not like I do this kind of service very often."

This she added playfully, complete with a childish pout and that V sign she liked so much. Looking at her, Rei thought she was something else.

 _Idiot_ , spat his inner voice – his _conscience_  – as it made itself known.

_Something's very wrong here. Can't you see it?_

Maybe there was, thought Rei, but it probably wasn't that much of a problem. As a student of psychology, he was unable to spot any malicious intent in the girl in front of her. Maybe he was the one who was being unfair. And if so, he owed her an apology.

He'd probably just misjudged her; looking at her now, Rei really couldn't perceive any ill intent on Reina's part. One look into her eyes – _those eyes of gold_ – was enough to convince him-

_Wait, what?_

"Hello? Earth to Rei?" said Reina suddenly as she tweaked him on the nose; when he looked down, he saw that the plate was completely cleaned out. "Really, it's rude to keep spacing out like that. At any rate, I'm glad you enjoyed the meal, though – I can't help but feel all fuzzy inside."

"Goodnight now, Rei," she said as she stepped out of the door, tray in her hands as she looked back at him briefly. "I do hope you'll open up to me a bit more from now on."

Finally, she closed the door behind her. And as she did so, Rei couldn't help but agree with his conscience.

Something did seem off, somehow, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Like she'd quite literally had him _under her thrall_ back there…

\------

Days passed, and before Rei knew it, he'd just ended yet another gruelling week of training.

He was happy about it, too, and with good reason. If the remarks from Daniel, Mancini and Pinocchio were anything to go by, he was improving at a remarkably fast rate.

The last time he'd tried out Wanted Mode in the Animus, his kill-death ratio had been a respectable 8-1 – a huge improvement from where he had started. His records in the Animus Virtual Training Program had likewise gotten better, if the bronze and silver medals he'd gotten in the free running courses were anything to go by. His skills had also progressed when it came to stealth assassination and kill streaks; while he hadn't yet gotten any medals there, his scores were nevertheless a far cry from what they were starting out.

All things considered, Rei thought as he laid in his bed, he deserved a break for tonight.

Outside the Animus, too, his performance had also gotten much better. Rei had had difficulty with the obstacle course at first, given that fatigue came into play, but he'd since come to find it much easier to deal with. Even hand-to-hand combat was becoming less and less of a hassle, considering Reina-

_Oh, really?_

_What_  about _Reina?_

Rei shook his head, not knowing what to do. Ever since they'd met, she'd been coming onto him quite strongly.

Reina always insisted on sitting next to him during mealtimes, always tried to get him alone; even pointing out to her that he, Rei, had a girlfriend, didn't seem to help much. Ever since he'd let down his guard that night, she became even more aggressive and insistent in her actions towards him. In the process, too, he'd learned not to look into her eyes while talking to her.

Perhaps he was just paranoid, but for some reason, it was as if eye contact made it easier for Reina to get him to agree with her, or to otherwise do something for her. Regardless, it was partly thanks to Reina Carmine that Rei spent half his time in the Animus, and the other half hanging out in the room shared by Daniel, Mancini and Pinocchio. Reina couldn't get in there, at least, which was more than could be said for his room.

He didn't know what she was thinking, but he wasn't sure he liked it. Yet for some reason, neither could he bring himself to push her away.

As a student of psychology, Rei couldn't help but suspect that there was some reason Reina was acting that way, and he felt that he ought to at least find out why.

_Is that so?_

He winced as the voice at the back of his head made itself known again.

_If you ask me, it's like you love the attention._

_I don't blame you, though – Reina_ would _have been a good match for you-_

"Shut up," Rei hissed to himself as he turned to face the wall to his right.

"Get it together, Rei," he told himself, as forcefully as could be. "You're here because you want to protect Freya. Don't let this girl get in your way now."

Tomorrow was Rei's day off, and it was just as well. At least then he and the guys could go out, and he could use a break from her attentions.

\------

The next day came.

As was the usual custom, Rei woke up at sunrise, and had breakfast in the dining hall with his comrades. He took his usual seat with Daniel, Mancini and Pinocchio, eating silently as the three chatted animatedly as to their plans for the day. Much to his surprise, Reina was mysteriously absent, but then she _was_ a girl, after all; for her to feel awkward surrounded by men all the time was but normal.

In the meantime, he listened as Daniel gave them their instructions.

After their usual lunch at that restaurant where he, Rei, had first met them, they'd be free to wander the city and to whatever they liked. The one rule Daniel had laid down was that they were to return to the Chateau by sundown.

"But for you, Rei," Daniel said suddenly, just as they'd finished eating, "There's another rule to follow."

At least, that was how it usually was.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"You're not to see your family, least of all Freya. Nor, for that matter, are you to make contact with anyone you know."

 _That_ took him by surprise. "What, why?"

At the question, Daniel's face took on a serious expression. It was the same one he used when speaking as their mentor and leader, which probably meant that even this strange command had a purpose. Rei had come to expect as much from him, actually; from what he'd experienced over the past week, Daniel usually had some good reason for even the most seemingly arbitrary things he did.

"It won't be just a regular day off for you – we'll be testing your fidelity to the Creed, too." Daniel explained, in the process confirming his hunch. "Think of it as your practical exam, Rei. An Assassin's work sometimes requires him to keep secrets, even from his loved ones. You do remember the second rule, right? [i]Hide in plain sight.[/i]"

"And besides," he added as though he were an older brother pointing out something to his younger sibling, "Wouldn't it be nicer to wait until you finished your training before seeing them again? It'd make the reunion that much sweeter."

"That, and there's something else, too," Mancini interjected suddenly, looking up from the paperback novel he'd whipped out in the meantime. "Pinocchio?"

"Y'see, Rei, Daniel told your classmates you'd gone to a special training camp," Pinocchio clarified. "They've all assumed you went up with us into the mountains or something. So if you suddenly turned up in front of them later, it'd make us look like liars, don't you think?"

"I know it's difficult, but bear with it," Daniel finished sympathetically, placing a hand on Rei's shoulder as he did so. "You've come so far, and it's only been halfway into your training! Don't get sidetracked now!"

He said nothing as he pondered the implications of what his comrades had said.

His friends _did_ make valid points, thought Rei. Of course he'd taken all three tenets of the Assassin's Creed to heart, and as they pointed out, disobeying Daniel's directive would be tantamount to a violation of two out of the three. The part about hiding in plain sight was obvious, but more importantly, if he revealed himself to them, he'd inadvertently end up compromising his comrades.

_And besides, I'm not sure if I'm ready to see Freya again._

Finally, after a long silence, Rei nodded, getting a clap on the back from Daniel in response. "I understand."

"Excellent, Rei. I knew you'd come through for us."

\------

_I'm glad that went well._

Daniel Cross sighed to himself as he sat, alone, in his office. There was always a reason for the things he did, though he knew they might not have made sense to others at times. Regardless, he did have his own reasons for allowing the three of them – Rei, Mancini and Pinocchio – to have their day off.

For one thing, he needed to stave off any possible suspicions Rei might have been having about them. After all, he thought, it would've been rather fishy for them to keep him locked up in the Chateau all the time. Besides, he could take care of himself and, should those thugs come after him again, he had Mancini and Pinocchio watching his back.

More importantly, however, there was _something_ he needed to take care of.

Daniel knew perfectly well that Reina Carmine had been stationed here for a reason, and he fully intended to find out exactly what it was.


	36. When The Time Came

The night before…

Yoshiyuki Kojima heaved a sigh as he sat back in his office in Abstergo Japan, stretching his arms before he got back to his laptop to continue his work.

It had happened just a few days ago, when he was given the offer to lead work on yet another special project, so soon after Project Nephilim had been completed. Actually, thought Kojima, 'asked' wasn't exactly an accurate way to put it, either. From the words and the tone of voice they used, it was clear that their 'asking' him had been little more than a formality.

It wasn't that Kojima had been forced into it, not exactly; Abstergo was known to treat its employees quite well, and they did give him a suite at their office building's lowest level to serve as his living quarters for the project's duration, and the accommodations were comparable to a room at a five-star hotel. Indeed, it wasn't hard to see why Abstergo had such a good rep among the general public.

However, there were certain details that seemed… off, somehow. For one thing, his superiors decided to implement some additional security measures for this particular project, some of which didn't seem to make sense in light of his status within the organization.

For one thing, Kojima had specifically been ordered to use only Abstergo-owned hardware, persocoms included. And he knew for a fact that it had nothing to do with the specifications of his persocoms, given that this was the first time they'd specifically prohibited him from bringing them in to expedite his work. They of all people would have known what his persocoms were capable of, given that it was his expertise in that area that drew them to him in the first place.

Taken in that light, Abstergo's sudden reluctance to let him make use of his persocoms was fishy, to say the least. As far as Kojima was concerned, though, there was another condition that he found much more disquieting.

_Kotoko…_

For the first time ever in his career at Abstergo, Kojima had been prohibited by his superiors from bringing Kotoko to the office, despite them knowing that she was his most favoured persocom, and therefore his most powerful. Even as a laptop unit, her capabilities had exceeded all the rest of his units, and that gap had only been reinforced by her recent upgrade. That his other persocoms had been banned from the office could at least be rationalized as constituting additional security measures, but…

He couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong with his current working conditions. Unfortunately for him, though, he also knew there wasn't much he could do about the current situation, except to bear with it until it was all over. He'd just have to tell Kotoko to take care of the house in the meantime-

_Speaking of which…_

Kojima clicked on the web browser on his desktop, before going to his email to begin typing up a message to Kotoko. Given that he wasn't going to be home for a while longer, he figured that this was the least he could do.

_Take care in the meantime, won't you, Kotoko?_

Yoshiyuki Kojima knew Kotoko probably wouldn't be too pleased with him when he got home, whenever that was.

For now, though, it was all he could do to hope and pray that he made it home at all.

\------

"Huh…?"

Kotoko looked up from Kojima's laptop with a look of puzzlement on her face, putting her work on hold for a moment so she could read the new message that arrived in her mailbox.

_From: Koji-kun_

_To: Kotoko_

_Date/Time: 11/02/31 1:49 AM_

_Subject: Kotoko_

_I might not be home at all for this entire week. Take care of the house, alright? Tell M I'm sorry I haven't been able to butt heads with him lately. Regards to everyone else, too –Dragonfly_

It was brief, and rather innocuous as far as messages went, but Kotoko couldn't help but worry. For one thing, he'd never been asked to work overtime like this before, and the way the letter was worded did nothing to reassure her. And that reference to 'M'…?

Had she a heart, it would have been racing by now.

Kotoko wasted no time putting on one of the many dresses she'd asked her dear Koji-kun for on her birthdays, sending orders to the rest of her fellow persocoms as she bounded down the stairs to head for the Kokubunji mansion. There was a reason Kojima had mentioned him by name, after all, and Kotoko herself had nothing but the highest degree of trust and respect for him.

And for that matter, Kojima too regarded the child prodigy as a friend of sorts, however frequently they might argue and disagree on the BBS they frequented. If her worst fears turned out to be correct, Minoru Kokubunji would definitely be able to help.

That being said, though, Kotoko continued to hope against hope that her intuition would turn out to be wrong.

\------

"…And that's the story so far," said Reina into her cellphone, stifling a yawn as she laid back down in her bed at the Chateau.

Aside from her unusual abilities, which set her head and shoulders above even the deadliest and most formidable of Abstergo's agents, Reina Carmine differed from her peers in one other respect. Generally, the agents who both aced the Animi Training Program and had the best success rates in field assignments were placed at the direct command of the Inner Sanctum, and would carry out missions for them. For instance, Daniel Cross had an entire team of subordinates that answered to him, though their numbers had been whittled down recently.

And in turn, Daniel himself had been bound to serve as Warren Vidic's personal enforcer. And, to the latter's credit, he at least did what he could to treat Daniel well, even if the sanity problems that had hounded Daniel for most of his life had mostly been Vidic's doing.

Reina, however, was different. Unlike the rest of her brethren, she answered exclusively to her mistress, even as she had also been ordered to recognize and carry out orders from Vidic and the Inner Sanctum as well. And there was a good reason for that, too. After all, not only was it she who had taught Reina everything she knew, she had also raised Reina from childhood as well. For all intents and purposes, she was her mother.

Reina's mistress for that matter was regarded as the Inner Sanctum's equal in rank, authority and stature, which afforded her quite a bit of freedom of action even they didn't have - all despite not even being an actual member of the organization.

"I see," said the woman on the other end, after a long pause; Reina could almost feel her satisfaction and anticipation. "And the boy?"

"He continues to impress, mistress," Reina answered truthfully, seeing no reason to disguise her interest in the boy. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, not particularly. Do with him as you wish, Reina; I won't question your judgment."

"Yes, my mistress," Reina's face cracked into an evil grin as she acknowledged the order, before finally hanging up.

Indeed, thought Reina; Rei Mikage _was_ an interesting child, and in more ways than one, too. Of all the people she had ever met, he was the only one who'd ever become aware of the gift she possessed. That he had been avoiding her was of little consequence, as was his constant closeness to Daniel and his trusted subordinates. She had the drones keeping tabs on him, and when the mood struck, she could command Triple-Zero herself to bring him in.

And there would be nothing either Daniel or his goons could do about it.

It was only fair, really. In the short time she'd known him, Rei had surpassed all of Reina's expectations, and damn if she wasn't going to give him his just reward.

As for the reward she planned to give herself, Reina Carmine had already decided.

_Yes…_

_You'll do nicely, Rei Mikage…_

\------

" _Agent Reina Carmine, one of Abstergo's top agents._ "

The timing of it all seemed suspect, Daniel noted, brow furrowed as he sipped his soda. His was the most vocal dissent to Project Nephilim, which was completed shortly before Reina Carmine had been assigned to his team. And while he himself had originally intended to utilize her as a means of getting Rei to forget about Freya – in the process allowing him to dispatch Freya in good conscience – her mere presence couldn't but raise all kinds of alarm bells in his head.

He couldn't help it, he thought as he keyed in the passcode to access her personnel file. He knew exactly _who_ and what _she_ was.

" _Currently assigned to the command of Daniel Cross, Abstergo Operations Division._ "

Of course, that statement was a lie. Officially, Reina was indeed his subordinate, but he knew for a fact that there was someone else pulling her strings - someone from the Inner Sanctum, or otherwise with close affiliations with them. Indeed, for all that he was one of the heads of the Operations Division – for all that he had his own team to command – he had no illusions that he had always been little more than a symbol to Abstergo.

They called him a hero, but their treatment didn't always make this apparent. For one thing, Daniel highly doubted that that other guy from Operations – Otto, if he recalled correctly – had ever been strapped to an operating table and subjected to what amounted to mind rape.

" _Reina Carmine, 31 years old. Born December 26, 2000 in the laboratory of Abstergo Japan, Carmine is Subject 00 of the Einherjar Project, an attempt to artificially create a true human-First Civilization hybrid._ "

Daniel knew they regarded Reina as a sort of female counterpart to him, but it wasn't until now that he'd realized exactly how far the parallels between them went. Where Vidic had tampered with him as a child, Reina had actually been born and created in an Abstergo lab. As the higher-ups probably saw it, her entire purpose was to serve as an instrument of Abstergo's will.

" _Due to certain flaws and side effects of the process used to create her, Carmine's body remains frozen at approximately 20 years of age, despite her chronological age of 31 years. Additional defects also necessitated the removal of her uterus and ovaries, rendering her unable to bear children in any way._ "

_Damn._

Daniel closed his eyes and bowed his head at what he'd just read, right after taking another drink of his soda.

It seemed that, like him, Reina too had had her life ruined from the outset by Abstergo. At first, it seemed to Daniel that the removal of her reproductive organs wasn't quite as debilitating as having been cursed with the bleeding effect – something he'd suffered with until the synch nexus helped him distinguish himself from his ancestor once and for all. In some ways it might even have been a blessing, given how it surely meant Reina never had to worry about having those days.

But, he, Daniel, had eventually overcome the bleeding effect.

Reina, on the other hand, would have to live the rest of her life dealing with the loss of that _something_.

" _Despite this rather unfortunate development, however, Carmine has since come to view it as but a small price to pay for the unique talents bestowed upon her. Most notable among these is the sixth sense more commonly referred to by the Assassins as Eagle Sense, which has been invaluable in the pursuit of the objectives not only of Abstergo, but of the greater Templar Order._ "

" _Indeed, Carmine has demonstrated consistent commitment to the Templar cause today, and has become one of Abstergo's most valuable assets. In every sense of the word, Reina Carmine can truly be considered a child of Abstergo – a child of the Templars._ "

Daniel, having read enough, slammed down the cover of his laptop in disgust.

So Reina, too, was little more than a tool to be utilized at the whim of the likes of Warren Vidic, and the saddest part was that she didn't even seem to care. She dedicated her entire life to Abstergo and to the Templar Order, not that she even had a choice to begin with. It was, quite literally, what she was born and bred to do.

As if to calm himself, Daniel drained what remained of his soda in three gulps, crushing the can and literally dumping it into the trash bin under his desk.

_…Dude._

_…You'll have your chance, soon enough._

His patience and tolerance of Abstergo, already thin to begin with, had been strained even further by what he saw as the needless deaths of his subordinates. It was only thanks to them that he, Daniel, continued to work for the organization. As his own way of atoning for his betrayal of the Assassins, he chose to repay the loyalty of his subordinates tenfold.

But with the way things were…

Daniel Cross would continue to work for and with Abstergo, if only to avenge himself upon the one who had singlehandedly wiped out half his team. At the same time, however, he hoped for Abstergo's sake that they weren't dumb enough to sacrifice any more of his men – Rei Mikage included. Whatever his objectives had been in taking the boy on as a protégé, the fact remained that he'd genuinely come to regard him as one of his own.

And if there was anything about him that nobody could deny, it was that he took care of his own.

_And… hell._

_I'm not sure I can take much more of their bullshit, myself._

All things considered, Daniel's one hope was that the suits at Abstergo weren't dumb enough to try anything. Otherwise, they'd have _him_ on their hands, and he wasn't exactly sure he felt like showing them mercy when the time came.


	37. A Clear And Present Danger

After having relieved himself, Rei checked his appearance in the mirror.

For today, his outfit consisted of a white, hooded leather jacket, and jeans, with a red bandanna wrapped around his neck that he could use as a face mask if necessary. Mancini and Pinocchio had chosen similar outfits for themselves, too. From what they said, the intent was to masquerade as members of a gang or otherwise some organized crime group, the better to discourage other people to come too close.

The place wasn't bad, either, thought Rei as the faucet automatically rinsed his hands as he placed them under it. They'd chosen to have lunch here at Café Momotaro, where the food was good and the prices weren't too high. In fact, according to Pinocchio, this particular establishment held a special meaning to them, given that this was where Daniel treated them to either lunch or dinner, usually once every one or two months.

That wasn't very surprising, not really; after all, Daniel had already established himself in Rei's eyes as someone who could be very generous when so inclined. While he could be a jackass at times, neither could it be argued that he cared very much for every one of his men. Indeed, such generosity on his part was one of the reasons Daniel Cross was quite obviously respected and beloved by his team.

What Rei did find interesting, though, was the fact that the head chef at this place was one of their own: a guy named Yukishiro, who according to Mancini was equally adept at combat and reconnaissance work. And, quite obviously, the guy must have had more than his fair share of talent in the kitchen as well, if his status as head chef of a restaurant like this was any indication.

"Hell," Mancini said suddenly, looking up briefly from his chicken curry as Rei rejoined them, "All of Daniel's treats are like that, actually. No matter how good the food, we've all learned to keep our ears peeled for any particularly juicy bit of information as well. You understand what I mean, don't you, Rei?"

Indeed, he did. Rei didn't need Daniel's training for him to know that all kinds of people frequented bars and restaurants, and that trips to such establishments could double as veritable learning experiences provided that one opened himself to them. He could literally sit in a coffee shop with a paperback book or a laptop computer in front of him, while at the same time snatching bits and pieces of ongoing conversations around him.

Nor, for that matter, was he ignorant of the asset posed by having good listening skills. Indeed, Rei's listening skills were among the many talents that had so far been seeing him through his college career despite his disinclination to take down notes. Some might have called it eavesdropping, but then, there was no such thing as a bad skill – only a bad use for it.

"Are you enjoying the food?"

The voice, new and unfamiliar, made Rei look up. It was a lean, handsome young man in a crisp, white business suit, with dark eyes and high cheekbones that gave him the appearance of some kind of ninja assassin. Looking at him, Rei guessed that this was the guy Mancini and Pinocchio had been telling him about: Yukishiro, master chef and sometime member of Daniel's band of merry men.

"Oh, hi, Weasel!" Pinocchio called brightly at the sight of the new arrival, cheeky grin on his face as their old comrade joined them. "Why don't you join us? You're not too busy to sit down with old friends, I hope?"

The man in white obliged, albeit with an embarrassed look on his face as he took the seat beside the blond-haired youth. "I see you're still the same as ever, Pinocchio – or, rather, _Giuliano Conti_ ," he corrected himself, noticeably smirking at the reproachful look on Pinocchio's face.

"And, _please_ , don't give me that look. I was just returning the favor. I _did_ ask you repeatedly not to call me by that nickname, you know."

Before Pinocchio could answer, though, the bell rang as the door swung open again. And as it did, a girl with dark eyes and long, dark hair with orange highlights walked in, followed by another girl, whose brown eyes and petite frame gave off the image of vulnerability.

Looking at them, Rei thought the two girls looked familiar; uncomfortably so, in fact. The first of them was someone he used to call 'mother' in another life, and whose slaps across the face had once been the only thing that could keep him in line. As for the other one, she was someone who had once been saved from a sticky situation by a girl he considered as a surrogate older sister.

_Oh crap._

"Rei, this is Yukishiro, Café Momotaro's head chef and our old friend," offered Mancini to Rei even as his two comrades continued to laugh good-naturedly beside him. He remained unaware of the recent unwelcome development, a friendly grin on his face as he added: "Itachi Yukishiro, who, however much he might not like it, also happens to be known to some by the callsign 'Weasel'. Anyway-"

"Not now, Matt, something's come up," Rei cut him off hurriedly, getting to his feet before turning his attention to Yukishiro. "It's an honor to meet you, sir. We can't stay, though – Daniel's orders, he-"

Rei was cut off himself as Yukishiro silenced him with the wave of a hand, nodding in understanding as he did so.

"No worries, I understand perfectly," he smiled knowingly at the youth. "I take it those girls over there are your friends, then?"

"Yeah," Rei answered, sneaking a glance at Shana, who was giving orders to the waitress 'com who had chosen to attend to them both. Thankfully she hadn't seemed to notice him yet, but he had no intention of risking it now. As Daniel said, he'd already come so far in the training; Rei knew that it wouldn't do for him to allow himself to get distracted now.

"Would you mind if we left through the back door? Daniel's given me orders, said I'm not allowed to make any form of contact with friends or family while we're off for the day."

"Right. I understand." Yukishiro stood up now, as did Mancini and Pinocchio. "Believe it or not, Daniel trained me the same way, too."

Rei paid marginal attention to Yukishiro as he talked of his own experience during his time as one of Daniel's trainees, having instead chosen that moment to sneak a second, surreptitious glance at Shana. He had mixed feelings about Daniel's rule, to say the least. On one hand, he understood full well the necessity of an Assassin being able to deceive and hide from those closest to him, knowing that he might need to do so in order to ensure their safety. At the same time, though, he couldn't stop himself from feeling at least a little guilty as he did so.

And even though he had learned, if only out of necessity, to block out his guilt at having lied to Freya back there, it continued to haunt him in his moments alone.

"Alright, then," said Yukishiro suddenly, recalling Rei to his surroundings. "Follow me, the back door's in the kitchen."

The four comrades wasted no time getting up and leaving their table, Rei noticeably pulling up his hood on the way out. Unable to help himself, however, he chanced yet another look at Nanako and Shana just before closing the door behind them.

And when his and Shana's eyes met, Rei hastily looked away, praying hard as he did so that she hadn't recognized him.

\------

Unfortunately for Rei, however, she did.

 _Both of them_ did.

It had happened so fast; she was busy chatting with Nanako about recent movies they felt like watching, or about artists whose albums they felt like getting in the near future – typical teenage talk, in other words. It was then, too, that they briefly locked eyes, just as she was telling Nanako off for a perceived slight, and as he was pulling up his hood. However briefly though their eyes had met, that moment was enough for Shana to recognize just who it was she had seen.

"Shana," Nanako hissed, nudging the other girl's arm gently with her elbow. "Isn't that-?"

"Yeah, I know," she whispered in reply. And as she did so, Shana couldn't help but feel simultaneously awed and irked at the fact that Rei's new friends seemed to be acquainted with the manager of this place. Indeed, 'acquainted' was putting it loosely, given that they even seemed to be on a first-name basis with each other. If nothing else, it meant that that guy, Daniel Cross, had was very well-connected indeed – which would make it hard to nail the jackass for what they did to her friend.

After about a minute, the manager came back. _Now's my chance._

Shana raised her hand, while at the same time trying to catch the manager's eye.

"Yes, what is it?" he said, coming over to their table after having seen her. "I'm Itachi Yukishiro, manager of this restaurant. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact, there is," said Shana politely, but with the same intimidating air that had allowed her to keep Rei in line all those times.

"That guy you were chatting with earlier was a friend of mine. You wouldn't mind telling me where he was headed, would you?"

Yukishiro's face remained carefully cordial, but it was the way he shifted that told Shana all she needed to know. Even so, he was somehow able to recover, giving her a charming smile as he answered her question. "I'm really sorry, miss, but I can't do that. It's true that they're my friends, but it's still their business what they do and where they go-"

"Please don't give me that," Shana replied, voice shaking as she injected as much force into her tone as she could. "I know you know, and I know who all of you work for."

Yukishiro was taken aback at the words coming from the mouth of the girl in front of him. "I'm afraid I don't understand, miss. Have I somehow upset you?" Privately, he understood just why that kid Rei wanted to avoid this girl. The moment he returned to them, they'd surely tear him limb from limb, in addition to what _their little angel_ had in store for him.

" _Don't give me your bullshit!_ " Shana finally lost her temper, eyes flashing as she suddenly stood up to glare at the man in white. "I know that you've all been training him into a killer. I also know for a fact that that guy Daniel manipulated him into running off to join you, so drop it already! Tell us where they've gone!"

"And I wouldn't try anything funny if I were you," added Nanako, the uncharacteristic assertiveness on her part surprising the girl with her. "My father's a high ranking member of a certain gentlemen's club, and they don't like foreigners messing around in their territory. Abstergo or not, Templar or not – what, you think we didn't know? – even you guys probably wouldn't want to cross him. Even if you survived it, there's no way any of you would make it out unscathed."

Outwardly, Yukishiro kept his cool. As he stared at the two girls, though, part of him wanted to laugh at the threats they had made against them. Of course they kept tabs on what went on in this city, including the activities that went on in certain sectors; indeed, he was certain that his clientele included members of those gentlemen's clubs the smaller girl had mentioned. More importantly, Daniel and the others had survived worse; whatever threat came their way, it was unlikely be beyond their ability to deal with.

On the other hand, he knew perfectly well what their little angel was capable of. Sometimes, he thought, it was preferable to let your opponent have a small victory, if only to avoid having to suffer an even more crushing loss later on.

"…Very well, then. Ami?"

At his words, the persocom waitress who had attended to them earlier came out of the kitchen, taking her place right beside him. "Yes, master?"

"Could you contact Tsuki for me?"

Yukishiro retreated into his mind as Ami acknowledged his request.

Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi – Ami and Tsuki for short – were Yukishiro's persocoms, who assisted him in his daily tasks. When they weren't acting as waitresses for the restaurant, they were his personal assistants and bodyguards – and friends, as well, to the extent that one could be friends with a persocom. At times, too, the two could also be counted on to warm him up on those cold nights alone. And so, for today, Daniel had asked him to have one of them tail Rei and company, the better to keep them safe.

"Tsuki says they're still in the vicinity, and that they're safe so far," Ami informed him in a few seconds, visibly hesitating as she did so. "But…"

"But?"

"She says someone else is following them, too. A redheaded woman, in a black dress."

Yukishiro watched the two girls take their leave, leaving behind an extremely generous tip as they did so. He'd just have to text Daniel – and, for that matter, Mancini and Pinocchio – about what happened.

Even as he did so, however, Itachi Yukishiro couldn't help but shake the feeling of a clear and present danger, one that would soon present itself.

Whatever it was, something big was about to go down. One way or another, things would never be the same after today.

\------

"Hmm?"

In Chateau Solange's conference room, Daniel Cross frowned as the phone suddenly rang.

"Hello?" he asked tentatively. He was in the middle of his investigation on Reina, and he didn't like what he discovered. And given how this phone call had distracted him from his task, he wasn't in a very good mood as he brought the phone to his ear. Indeed, it was all he could do to keep the irritation from making itself obvious in his tone of voice.

" _…Daniel._ " The voice of Dr. Warren Vidic greeted him.

"Doc?"

_"I have to say, Daniel…"_

_"I'm very disappointed in you."_

"Wait, what?"

" _Clear out of Chateau Solange. And I do mean right now. You'd better appreciate this, Daniel. It's the last favor I'll ever do for you._ "

Then the line went dead.


	38. Comrades

Having closed shop for the day, Itachi Yukishiro was in his office in his restaurant's second floor, readying himself for the battle that was sure to come.

Today really wasn't their day, thought the agent-turned-chef as he suited up in his gear for the first time in a long time. What started as a pleasant lunch reunion with old friends took a turn for the worse upon the confrontation with those two girls, during which he'd been forced to rat out his comrades. He didn't like it, not in the least. It was bad enough that he'd been named for an animal commonly associated with betrayal and treachery; now, he'd proven that stereotype to be correct.

Granted, it may have been for the best, given that the girls could definitely have made good on their threats. To be precise, it was his knowledge of just who and what Rei Mikage's girlfriend happened to be – and, more importantly, what she was capable of – that made him decide as he did. Sometimes, it really was better to cede a small victory to the enemy, if only to avoid suffering a crushing defeat yourself.

And then, just as he'd thought things couldn't get any worse, something else happened.

_Damn you, Vidic._

Daniel rang him barely a few minutes ago, demanding that he suit up in case Abstergo came for him. And when Yukishiro asked why, their commander simply said that their entire team had been fired by Abstergo for some reason or another. And if their services were no longer required, that meant...

_"Knowing her, she'll probably come to kill us all one by one. And if anything happens to me, Weasel, I need you to do me a favor."_

_"Yeah? What's that?"_

_Daniel told him._

_"…I see. Don't worry about it, Daniel."_

It was a no-brainer, really. Daniel's request was something only Yukishiro was capable of, in light of his extraordinary connections. He didn't need to ask who she was, either. There was only one person he knew of – one _person_ , because he wasn't quite sure what _their little angel_ counted as – who could elicit that kind of fear from Daniel, after all.

And while the request in question was something he personally wished he'd never have to carry out, he wasn't really the type to leave his friends and comrades high and dry. If Daniel had kept him around despite the complications brought on by his special connections, this was probably the least he could do in return.

_Those who break the rules are no better than trash._

_But those who abandon their comrades… are even worse than trash._

Having finished suiting up, Yukishiro turned his attention to his weapons. His hidden blades remained in pristine condition, despite having seen more than its fair share of battles both in his previous life as well as this one. Indeed, ever since he first received them, he'd made quite a few modifications of his own, all of which had come in handy at various points in his career.

One of these was the chain blade on his secondary bracer, a miniaturized grappling hook launcher capable of reaching up to 20 feet away. Another of Yukishiro's unique innovations was what he called the stun blade, which allowed both his blades to deliver up to 30,000 volts of electricity in a single discharge. Ami and Tsuki had referred to it as the lightning blade, and with good reason: thanks to this particular addition, Yukishiro effectively had the lightning at his fingertips.

At last, having tucked a silenced machine pistol in his tactical vest, he was done.

And with that, Itachi Yukishiro departed, having locked down the premises behind him.

\------

"This is…"

To say that Lorenzo Auditore was awestruck as he looked around at his old friend's secret lab would have been putting it lightly.

"Amazing…"

Indeed, he'd already known that the Chobits series was superior to the Eden series his old friend had developed for their Order. However few the differences were between the two, they were sufficient to place the Chobits in a class of their own. Needless to say, he, Lorenzo, had seriously underestimated just how different the two were.

For one thing, the Chobits were supposed to have true sentience. Normally, persocoms were bound to the confines of their programming, such as personality protocols that made them behave in a certain way. Demeter and Ceres, for all that they were the forerunners of the Chobits series, were no different in this regard. However much it shamed him to admit it, there was a time when Lorenzo was skeptical as to whether the twins were mere machines, or something more.

"We created them to be daughters to us," Chitose explained as she sat at her console, an image of either Freya or Elda appearing on the display. "But, the truth is, my husband and I looked at all persocoms as our children. Isn't it normal for parents to want happiness for their children?"

Chitose's fingers danced wildly all over the keyboard as she then proceeded to explain the mysterious incident from two years ago, wherein Elda - who now answered to the name Chii - linked with persocoms all over the world to execute her special program. Lorenzo knew perfectly well which incident she was talking about; indeed, he'd been among the luckier ones, as he and Ceres and Demeter happened to be home when it occurred.

That said, he could imagine the panic it caused. For most persocom users, having your persocom freeze up on you all of a sudden for no apparent reason would probably be very scary indeed. And if either Freya or her sister – or, for all he knew, Chitose – desired it, they could freeze persocoms all over the world on a whim.

Abstergo knew this, as did the Syndicate before them. It was just lucky he'd convinced Zima to defect from the Syndicate not long after the incident. While he wasn't a combat-oriented persocom, the so-called King of the Persocoms had capabilities that were in some respects on par with the Eden series. Needless to say, he wasn't someone Lorenzo would have wanted as an enemy.

"I see," Lorenzo nodded as Chitose finished her explanation. "Is that why Abstergo took Freya, then?"

However much it disgusted him, even Lorenzo had to admit that he understood why Regenschirm had chosen to do what he did to Freya. Given her remarkable capabilities, it must have been very hard for him – and, by extension, Abstergo – to resist the thought of replicating the Chobits series for their own purposes. He supposed it was just lucky they'd neglected to reformat Freya's personality and memories on top of all the upgrades.

Otherwise, they'd all be screwed.

"Perhaps," Chitose replied, albeit with a trace of uncertainty that somehow unsettled him. "There's one other possible reason, if I'm not mistaken..."

"Hmm?"

"You see, my husband told me just before he died that he placed another special program into both Elda and Freya," she continued, more images of the twins in question appearing on screen.

"Not even I know what it does, only that he set it to activate in extraordinary circumstances."

"And whatever it is, Abstergo can't be allowed to get their hands on it," Lorenzo finished for her as he got to his feet. "Right, I understand now."

"Alright, then, Chitose, would you come with me? I don't think it's safe for you to stay here in the meantime."

\------

Following his friends' lead, Rei took to the rooftops as he sought to elude their pursuers.

Unfortunately for him, his fear had come to pass; that brief glance a while back was enough for Shana to recognize him. And while their hasty departure allowed them a healthy head start, they'd gotten a phone call from Yukishiro, who wasted no time telling them that they were being followed.

"Better get moving, Rei," the man in white had said. "If they catch up with you, it won't be pretty. Hell, that redheaded chick looked ready to castrate me on the spot!"

Of course, thought Rei as he leapt from the edge of one rooftop to another, he already knew that. He knew those girls better than Yukishiro did, after all. And he sure as hell knew how scary Shana could be when she was upset, having learned it himself the hard way.

He wasn't sure what he feared most, actually, given that him getting caught would have a number of unpleasant consequences. For one thing, it was Daniel's orders that he refrain from making contact with Freya or any of his peers, and he, Rei, had no intention to let Daniel down in this regard. And if Shana [i]did[/i] catch up with him, she'd undoubtedly kill him for worrying them sick.

And the less he thought about what Freya would do to him, the better.

_Dammit!_

Rei cursed himself as he nearly fell from the roof, having barely missed landing on the edge. It was just lucky that he caught the ledge in time; harmless such a fall might have been in the Animus, for him to fall here would likely translate to a few broken bones, and that was if he was lucky. If not, well...

"You alright, Rei?"

Pinocchio briefly grinned down at Rei, extending a hand to assist him as he clambered up on the roof. "Seriously, man, watch it! I'd rather not have to explain to Daniel why you broke every single bone in your body, you know."

"Right, sorry about that," Rei reciprocated with a sheepish, yet somewhat apologetic grin of his own. "I just got... scatterbrained for a minute, that's all." And as he said this, he silently chastised himself for that distraction; had his comrades not been around, that fall could easily have been the end of him.

"Yeah, well, try to be more careful, kid," this from Mancini as he regarded him severely. "One small misstep and you'll really be scatterbrained - all over the pavement, in fact."

But just as Rei was about to make a comeback of his own, they heard a scream.

"Hey, you guys hear that?" Rei asked his comrades, looking from one to the other with a serious look on his face. Whoever it was, they were close by, and they needed help. And since they happened to be in the area...

"Sure did, Rei," said Pinocchio as he adjusted his hidden blade bracers. "What do you say let's assist?"

"Understood. C'mon, then, let's go!"

And as another scream rang out, they wasted no more time heading towards its source. Someone needed help, and Rei, field exam or not, felt compelled to oblige.

After all, it was the main reason he'd wanted to become an Assassin in the first place.

\------

"Well, well. Isn't this a surprise?"

Ceres and Demeter regarded the pair before them with a mixture of bemusement, irritation and resignation.

At long last, they'd gotten a lead as to Rei's location; by some miracle, Shana and Nanako had spotted him here in the commercial district, hanging out with individuals presumed to belong to Abstergo's Operations Division. Freya had wanted very much to come here herself, but Ceres told her in no uncertain terms that her job was to protect Oyuki and their friends. "Don't worry, Freya," she'd told her. "We'll get Rei back, for sure."

What a surprise, then, that they'd run into _these_ two right here.

"Ceres. Demeter," the one on the left nodded politely at the two of them. "It's so nice to see you two again. It's been far too long since we last met, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess you're right, Ami," Demeter smiled back, though her smile was one of mingled happiness and sadness. "I'm glad to see you're both doing well, too."

She'd known these two, once upon a time: Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, designated EDEN-12A/T of the Eden series. Together with their master, Itachi Yukishiro, they'd once been among the finest of the Assassin Order's operatives, and had a hand in designing some of their more esoteric gadgets and weapons as well.

"I don't suppose you're willing to let us pass for today, Ami? Tsuki? For old time's sake?"

A moment of silence passed between the two pairs as these words hung in the air. Having been created by the same person, they all considered themselves sisters. They'd all been programmed with the same skills and capabilities, after all, even if their respective specializations differed. Needless to say, all of them hoped, very much, that their respective circumstances would never pit against each other.

Finally, the one on the right stepped forward and slowly shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Demi," came the sad reply from the dark-haired, red-eyed persocom. "We can't let down the one we love."

And with that, the dark-haired twins charged.

\------

" _Triple-Zero._ "

Standing on the roof with her drones, Siren looked up at the communique.

"Yes, mistress?"

" _The time has come._ "

"Understood."


	39. Nasty Surprises

Freya stood on the roof of the Mikage house, standing ready as she scouted the surrounding area.

_Rei…_

At last, at long last, they'd finally found him; according to Nanako and Shana, they'd spotted Rei at one of the many restaurants in the commercial district, hanging out with his new _friends_ from Daniel's team. Indeed, Freya had all but demanded that she be allowed to go after them and get Rei back herself, but Ceres talked her down. And when she objected, the periwinkle-haired retainer of the Mikage family pointed out the very real danger that the Templars might very well send their minions here – and that, more specifically, there was a real chance that they might send the Nephilim herself.

Needless to say, _that_ killed any further compunction to argue on Freya's part.

For a long time, she and Ceres and Demeter had all been unique for their status as combat persocoms, but alas, that was no longer the case. Now that Abstergo had combat persocoms of their own, it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that they'd be forced to deal with them soon. Indeed, Freya and Demeter – and Nanako, for that matter – had already encountered them, and unfortunately, they were every bit as dangerous as expected.

And so it was that after a lengthy and intense debate as to who would do what, she and the twins had come to an agreement. Freya's job right now was to stay here and protect the Mikage house – not to mention Shana, Nanako and Oyuki, who at the moment were hiding in the basement – in the event that the worst case scenario came to pass. Meanwhile, Ceres and Demeter would go find Rei and bring him back.

_Don't worry, Freya._

_We'll get Rei back, for sure._

And so the twins embarked on their mission, though not without seeing fit to leave behind a few gifts for the blond persocom. Demeter had provided Freya with full access to the Mikage house's array of surveillance and security systems, which meant that she could spot the enemy from up to two blocks away. According to her, it was one of two countermeasures put into place by their master should the house come under attack.

"Not even the mistress knows about it," Ceres had added. "And if possible, we'd like it to stay that way."

For that matter, they'd also given Freya free access to the second countermeasure: a cache of weapons they'd kept hidden in the basement. Tucked inside her robes was a set of twin Desert Eagles similar to the ones Ceres favored so much, while a pair of high frequency blades gifted to her by Demeter lay sheathed at either side of her waist. Together with her own hidden blades, the twins' respective signature weapons had all but turned her into a walking armory.

Even now, Freya couldn't help but feel that all these weapons seemed just a little bit excessive.

Then again, the additional firepower was an arguable necessity in light of the current circumstances.

However much she, Freya, liked to think that she possessed a healthy grasp of the lethality with which Abstergo had blessed her by way of her enhancements, she knew better than to hope her enemies didn't happen to be packing the same capabilities themselves. If anything, she thought, it could very well be the case that her enemies had certain tricks up their sleeve designed specifically for her. After all, it was almost too much to ask that they hadn't been able to come up with a countermeasure against GUNGNIR, to say nothing of her enhancements _which they built into her in the first place_.

 _They're stupid, but not_ that _stupid._

Countermeasures or not, thought the blond persocom as she readied her weapons and pulled her hood up, there was no way in hell she'd just sit by and let Abstergo do whatever they wanted. After all, it was way back during her first week here at the Mikage house, not long after Rei and Sayuri and Ceres found her right at their doorstep, that she made a solemn vow not to let anyone hurt her precious ones. And if she were to break that vow _now_ , when it mattered most…

_…No._

There was no question about it, then.

No matter what happened, she would fight.

Unfortunately, even as she loaded her guns for the battle that was sure to come, Freya just couldn't shake the feeling that _something awful_ was going to happen.

\------

Daniel Cross sat in front of the computer in his office at Chateau Solange, making preparations for the _visitors_ he'd been told to expect.

 _…Took them long enough, those idiots_.

In all honesty, Daniel had no idea whatsoever how they'd been discovered. Every single member of his team had proven themselves loyal to him personally, which wasn't surprising given how he alone among the Inner Sanctum refrained from treating them like expendable pawns. He didn't doubt that his subordinates would side with him against Abstergo if it came right down to it. In that case, how-?

_…Of course._

_Reina._

Of course, Daniel didn't actually have any proof it was her; but then, he didn't [i]need[/i] any. Even if he didn't know the exact reason she'd been assigned to his unit, a while back, it wasn't much of a stretch to guess that it somehow involved keeping tabs on him. After all, he'd made no secret of his displeasure with Abstergo following [i]that[/i] night, especially after their unforgivably callous attitude towards the deaths of his subordinates. They told him to at least take comfort in the fact that they died in the line of duty, but as far as Daniel was concerned, that wasn't much of a comfort considering [i]their deaths could have been avoided in the first place[/i].

_What bullshit, honestly._

In that light, thought Daniel, he probably should have seen this coming. Now that his contract had been terminated by Abstergo, it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that he and his men had been marked for death, nor was it out of the question that they'd sent one of their [i]cleanup squads[/i] to deal with him. And of course, he knew perfectly well how good those _cleanup squads_ were at what they did; he'd led them once before, after all, during that one mop-up operation in Whistler, Canada.

_...What now, then?_

_Do I call them back?_

Daniel considered it carefully. Effective though Abstergo's goons were, there was a reason he and his team had been so highly regarded, however unorthodox his methods were with respect to training and leadership. If it came right down to it, he had no doubt he and his team would be able to not only rebuff them, but make them pay in blood.

_But then, at what cost?_

Then again, however formidable his men were, the rest of Abstergo's minions weren't that far behind. Even though he, Daniel, had taken extra care to make sure his team was comprised exclusively of those who'd performed best in the Animi Training Program, the fact remained that his now-former employers would compensate for their advantage in skill with sheer numbers. He didn't doubt that each of his men was a match for two, maybe three of theirs, but…

_…There's really no other way, then._

And as his fingers danced all over the keyboard as he put his final countermeasures in place, Daniel allowed a sigh to escape him, his lips curving upwards in a smile of grim satisfaction.

_If nothing else, I've got a few nasty surprises that ought to blow them away …_

\------

_…!_

Ceres gritted her teeth as she narrowly avoided a kunai thrown her way, before squeezing off a burst of gunfire in the direction of her current opponent.

_You haven't changed one bit…_

Similarly, Demeter also found herself locked in a stalemate with Amaterasu, the two of them locking blades briefly as each tried unsuccessfully to overpower the other land a decisive blow. The black-clad persocom inclined her head slightly, as if to acknowledge the narrow struggle, before returning the favor as she brought her own twin swords crashing down on those of her old comrade.

An observer happening to chance upon the scene would have noticed the near-identical expressions of enjoyment and pleasure on the faces of the four ladies, and most likely assumed that this was their idea of bonding with each other and making up for lost time. And to an extent, this was indeed the case; it was merely a few years ago that all four of them developed a close bond with each other. And for that matter, their respective masters had also been bound to each other as master and apprentice, at least until the series of unfortunate events that resulted in Itachi Yukishiro's defection from the Assassin Order.

On the other hand, thought Demeter, none of them were particularly happy about the way fate seemed to have set them against each other. Given that no less than seven years had passed since Ceres and Demeter had been able to spend time with Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, they would have preferred their reunion to take place under different circumstances. Knowing them, they'd probably have gone out shopping, or to otherwise help out at a preschool or a daycare center or an orphanage.

_I wanted to see you too, Ami, Tsuki._

_But not like this…_

Needless to say, thought Ceres even as her bullets collided with Tsukuyomi's shuriken, a battle to the death in a deserted street was _not_ how they imagined their reunion would turn out.

"…Just like old times, huh?" she grunted, gritting her teeth as all her shots either missed or were intercepted by her adversary's arsenal of shuriken and kunai. "You haven't lost your edge at all, Tsuki!"

"You haven't lost a step yourself, Ceres," Tsukuyomi returned the compliment as she bantered back, her face a clear picture of exhilaration. "You're exactly as I remember you, too!"

"And please, don't give me _that_  look, Demi," chimed in Amaterasu, her ruby eyes flashing as she replied in a tone emulating that of her master and brandished her sword in a challenging gesture. "Itachi trains with the two of us all the time, of _course_ I haven't lost my edge!"

And with that, the momentary respite ended as the two pairs of twins resumed their battle.

But then-

" _CERES!_ "

She couldn't help it.

Enemy or not, they were still sisters, and as far as she was concerned, sisters looked out for each other.

And so it was that regardless of their current circumstances, Amaterasu couldn't help herself from shouting out a warning as she saw the platinum-haired figure on the rooftop level a sniper rifle.

" _CERES, GET AWAY FROM THERE NOW!_ "

Unfortunately, it was too late.

And so it happened that it was only when Ceres fell to her knees as the sound of a gunshot pierced the relative silence, clutching a left shoulder that had suddenly gone limp, that all four of them finally realized that they'd been completely surrounded by Abstergo's minions.

\------

Rei felt his heart racing as he stared down the man in front of him, while the terrified, black-clad young woman he'd cornered in the dead end of the alleyway looked on.

"What're you staring at, you little shit?" demanded the criminal, drawing a rather large knife and making wild slashing motions in the air in front of him. "You think you can take me on? _Do you?!_ "

"Take you on?" Rei echoed, taking a step back even as he forced himself to project a confidence he didn't truly feel. "If you're that eager to get your ass kicked, then sure, why not?"

The effect of those words was predictable, as the man lunged right at the teenager in a manner not unlike that of a rabid dog. And though he cursed himself for not having thought this through, Rei nevertheless slid his right foot backwards in a fighting stance and brought his fists up in anticipation of the attack. But then-

"What- _AUGH!_ "

Luckily for Rei, the criminal never managed to land a single blow.

Before he'd even gotten within a foot of Rei, a figure landed on him, pinning him back to the ground as he stabbed him in the shoulder with a hidden blade. His whole body then shook for around three seconds as what must have been a few thousand volts of electricity coursed right through it, before going still as the attack ended, the figure slapping him lightly with on the forehead to confirm the results of his handiwork.

"He's out cold, alright." muttered the figure – Pinocchio – to himself as he got up and faced the teen. "I really ought to thank Itachi for this thing, his so-called 'lightning blade' really lives up to its name…"

You alright, Rei?" This he added, his blue eyes twinkling as he gave the teen a thumbs-up. "That's twice now I've saved your ass!"

"Thanks, Pinocchio," Rei began, genuinely grateful as he'd just begun to recover from what just happened, "I really owe you one-"

The rest of his words were cut off, however; the young lady they'd saved ran straight at him, the wind blowing off her hood as she leapt straight into his arms and embraced him tightly.

"Wait a minute, get off me-" Rei spluttered, a pink tinge creeping up his cheeks even as he felt equal parts pleasure and discomfort at this overly forward display of gratitude. It was just lucky his hood stopped him seeing the woman's face, otherwise…

"Thanks so much for saving me, _Rei!_ "

"Wait, how come you-?"

Rei never got to finish his sentence, though. For the second time in the span of a minute, the rest of his words were drowned as the lady pressed her own lips against his, leaving him to stare at _a pair of beautiful gold eyes-_

_Wait, what… is this?_

_I feel… exhausted…_

"Sleep now, Rei…"

Those words were the last Rei Mikage heard before the world faded, a certain red-haired young lady cradling him in her arms as a deep sleep claimed him.


	40. Chapter 39: When It Rains, It Pours

  _When it rains, it pours, huh?_

To Demeter, there was no better way to describe their current predicament.

No less than two dozen enemies had surrounded them, comprised of human agents as well as a few of the Nephilim drones Demeter had encountered last time. Their enemies wielded blades, bludgeoning weapons and firearms in equal measure, and from the looks of things, it was clear that they’d been ordered to recognize Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi as targets as well.

For that matter, Ceres’ assessment of their current situation was equally grim. As she sized up their opposition while putting her damaged arm in the sling she’d fashioned from the ribbon she wore around her waist, she mentally cursed herself for having neglected to bring her bigger guns for this mission. While her favorite Desert Eagles _did_ pack quite a punch as far as handguns went, they were still just handguns, and in any case, the fact that her left arm was currently disabled meant that she only had one hand to shoot with.

_Screw this…!_

Looking at the forces massed against them, she had a really bad feeling about their odds of survival. On one hand, Ceres knew that she and all three of her sisters were highly capable combatants, and that their ability to work together amplified that combat potential even further. Unfortunately, she wasn’t convinced that that was enough to surmount the sheer tactical and numerical disadvantages facing them now. And if the Nephilim drones were indeed as dangerous as Demeter had described them to be… 

_Talk about the shit hitting the fan…_

There was absolutely no way either she or Demeter would surrender, and she was quite sure Ami and Tsuki were unwilling to give up as well. Nor did she have any doubts that all four of them were quite ready and willing to take their attackers down with them if it came to that. Not that that was a favorable option as far as she was concerned, but…

_Rei…_

_Freya…_

_Oyuki…_

_Nanako…_

_Forgive me…_

“Hey Ceres, what have you got on you?” asked Tsukuyomi as she drew what appeared to be a smoke bomb from her pouch. “It looks like we’re all in this together, so work with us here!”

Ceres recalled the gear she’d brought along for today. Not counting her twin pistols or her extra ammunition, she had flashbangs and chaff grenades on hand as well. Unfortunately, she wasn’t convinced that either would be of much use in this situation; after all, while flashbangs worked well at knocking human adversaries out of commission, they did little to persocoms beyond restricting their movements for a few moments. The chaff grenades might have been a more effective option in the case of the Nephilim drones, but then she had no way of knowing for sure that they weren’t shielded against electronic countermeasures such as those.

That said, _anything_ was better at this point than simply waiting to be destroyed.

“Right, then,” she finally replied to her erstwhile opponent. “On the count of three – one, two-“

At the last word, Tsukuyomi and Ceres quickly threw one of each explosive into the air, resulting a blinding flash as the area became covered by a blanket of smoke and chaff. Judging from the lack of movement coming from the Nephilim drones, it seemed their gamble had paid off; while the drones were nearly as dangerous as the prototype they’d been based on, it was apparent that cost-cutting measures kept them from being as lethal as they might have been.

Seeing that their enemies were temporarily immobilized, Amaterasu turned to her twin.

“Our turn, then?”

At the latter’s assent, the two wasted no time leaping onto the rooftop, where the enemy wasted no time surrounding them. The twins stood back-to-back as they sized up the opposition, each preparing to make her first move.

“Ready, Tsuki?” said Amaterasu, sheathing her twin blades as she looked over the alley below, where Ceres and Demeter had their backs to the wall. From where she was standing, the ruby-eyed persocom saw the difficulty with which her sisters tried to ward off their assailants; obviously, Ceres only had one gun to shoot with, as the damage she’d sustained earlier made it difficult to even hold another gun, let alone aim properly with it. And though Demeter hacked, slashed and stabbed all over the place with malignant grace, her job was made more difficult by the need to defend the currently crippled Ceres.

“Waiting on you, Ami!”

_Wait, what the hell!?_

Ceres could hardly contain her astonishment as Amaterasu breathed a river of flame at their attackers that roasted agents and Nephilim drones alike. Similarly, Tsukuyomi unleashed a surprise of her own on their enemies on the roof; in stark contrast to the high-powered flamethrower her sister had concealed in her mouth, hers took the form of a concentrated pulse of highly pressurized water with enough strength to crush rocks that crashed into their foes and battered them with hardly any effort. And then, following that initial attack that neutralized most of the opposition, they rejoined Ceres and Demeter down below as the latter two wasted no time mopping up the remnants.

“So, then, Ami, Tsuki,” began Ceres as she finally holstered her gun, “I don’t suppose you’d wanna share the part where you suddenly got hidden flamethrowers and water cannons installed in you?”

“Yeah, do tell. I’m sure as hell that none of us had those when they built us,” added Demeter, not bothering to mask her curiosity as she gazed at her sisters. “Not even Izanami and Izanagi, and _they’re_ the ones who usually get most of the good stuff.”

Amaterasu laughed.

“Oh, you’ll love it, it’s one hell of a story! Not here, though – we need to get somewhere safe, wouldn’t you say? Not to mention, we should probably get that fixed as well,” she added as she jerked her head at Ceres’ damaged shoulder.

“…Alright, then,” Demeter’s face became serious as she nodded in understanding. “But where?”

“Follow us,” this from Tsukuyomi as she took Ceres’ good hand. “We know a place.”

“Itachi sent word, we’re to meet him as well as Master Lorenzo right now.”

 

* * *

 

 

Pinocchio just stood there, mouth wide open as he watched Reina cradle the sleeping Rei in her arms in what could easily have been mistaken for a lover’s embrace.

“Rest now, Rei. We’ll have lots of bonding time later, I promise.”

The cute smile on her face as she whispered the words didn’t escape Pinocchio, either. Any other time, he would have considered that smile to be one of the more endearing things about Reina, but right now, he really couldn’t think of anything more disturbing. It didn’t help either that one of the reasons he and Mancini had been assigned to watch Rei was precisely to prevent something like this from happening. Sure, it was mostly to make sure he wouldn’t end up running into ‘ _their little angel’_ or any of his family or friends from outside, but for all that their squad leader had deceived Rei Mikage, he was at least serious about training him and keeping him safe.

In other words, thought Pinocchio even as his hand inched towards the gun holstered in his jacket, he screwed up – big time.

 _And it’s a safe bet that_ that _guy’s not gonna be happy when he finds out…_

“As for you…”

The Italian youth snapped back to reality as the redhead addressed him, having set Rei down on the concrete. From where he was standing, he could easily see the hidden blade extended on Reina’s left wrist, not to mention the electricity crackling all over the blade’s edge. _Well, shit. This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?_

“If it all turns out right, which I’m sure it will, Daniel should be dead by sundown. Still, you’d probably make things messy for me if you told anyone, and I can’t have that, now can I?”

Reina’s tone was matter-of-fact as she slowly advanced towards Pinocchio, with an air so casual she might have been commenting on the weather. There was _something_ about her dissonant serenity that gave him the creeps, as Daniel would have put it. Even as he drew the switchblade he’d hidden inside his jacket, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the wiser thing to do would be to try and make a run for it.

“Oh, well,” shrugged the redhead. “You’ll just have to go, too.”

Pinocchio wasted no time brandishing his switchblade for a desperate slash, but then-

“I guess this is goodbye, then, Pinocchio?” Reina whispered the words as she closed the gap in a heartbeat, “I’ll see you around, I hope. Or, maybe I won’t?”

Pinocchio never managed to reply as he felt _something_ penetrate into his right shoulder.

The blond youth’s screams filled the alleyway as lightning ran through his body, before fading as he blacked out and lost consciousness.

 

* * *

 

 

“…Yes, Sayuri, I promise. I’ll get him back no matter what, _mia cara,_ don’t worry. I’ll call back soon, okay?” said Lorenzo hurriedly as he ended the call – and just in time for his phone to ring a second time.

“Hello?” he said again as he answered the new call, a grim look on his face. “Hannah, what – no, there’s no time to wait, I needed you and Gavin here an hour ago-“

His words were cut off, though, as _something_ in his left pocket – clearly another mobile phone – began to ring as well. “Just a moment, Hannah, I need to take this-“

“Hello?” said Lorenzo again, this time as he picked up his secondary phone. “Weasel? Yeah, I’m still here – just hurry it up if you can, alright? We don’t have much time-“

“Lorenzo?” Chitose asked nervously as she looked up from her seat, seeing how the agitation and tension clearly written in every line of her houseguest’s body. “Is something wrong?”

The Italian’s chuckle was weary as he turned to look at her, a sign she took to mean she guessed right. “Just everything. Unfortunately, it turns out I was right – it _really_ isn’t safe for you here right now.”

The scientist-turned-landlady wasted no time getting to her feet at his reply. “Is it anything to do with what you came here for?”

Once again, Lorenzo’s lack of a verbal answer was an answer in itself. “The short version is, the people who stole Freya and _remodeled_ her managed to come up with their own persocom assassin as well. I don’t claim to know what they’re up to, but it’s too much to hope they won’t go after you, among others. They’ve already kidnapped Rei, and my wife’s been on my case about it for days. That first phone call? Yeah, that was Rei’s sister.”

To Chitose, it was history repeating itself all over again. Two years ago she’d left Chii – Elda, as she was known then – out in the open, only for her to end up in the care of the very same young man who’d just arrived at her apartment earlier that day. Now, Freya managed to find a second chance for herself as well, with none other than the younger sibling of the wife of one of her oldest friends. She smiled in spite of her self; it really _was_ a small world, after all.

“…Alright, then,” Chitose nodded even as she sought to make sense of everything that was happening. “Where are we going, then?”

“Somewhere safe. I’ll explain further along the way.”

Chitose followed Lorenzo out the door to her apartment, only pausing to grab her tablet computer from the table in the living room before they left.

 

* * *

 

 

Freya dodged an attack from the drone in front of her with the blade in her left hand, before kicking it backwards and lunging forward to stab it in the face.

_How on earth did they make so many of them this quickly!?_

Such were Freya’s thoughts as she found herself locked in battle with Abstergo’s minions, comprised of both human agents as well as Nephilim drones. She barely had time to relax after dispatching the first of them before another one tried to blindside her from the left. Luckily she was able to parry the clumsy slash with her sword and send it flying into one of its human companions, at which point she drew her second blade in her right hand and then impaled them both, all in the span of one second.

Unfortunately, that still left a battalion’s worth more of them for her to deal with.

Assessing the situation before her, Freya couldn’t help but grit her teeth. When it came right down to it, she could probably just make use of her accelerator to end this battle and get rid of all of them in a heartbeat. Granted, the accelerator _did_ use up a lot of power, but then she had a self-replenishing power supply to fall back on. _And they’re getting on my nerves, so there’s that, too._

On the other hand, Freya made it a point to know everything she could possibly know about herself. To be more precise, she knew enough about her specifications to know that if she used her accelerator for too long, the power consumption would end up outstripping her energy’s regeneration rate. Even though it wouldn’t have taken too long for her to recharge in that case, she didn’t want to risk anything happening to either Oyuki or Shana or Nanako within that window.

_I doubt either Rei or Sayuri or the twins would forgive me for it, and I’m not sure I could forgive myself, either._

Needless to say, thought Freya even as she braced herself to fight more of them, the accelerator was something she’d do better to hold back in case of emergency.

_Still…_

_I can’t lose here. I still need to protect everyone._

And so it was at that moment, where Freya resolved to continue fighting despite the odds currently stacked against her, that she felt _something_ awaken inside of her…


	41. Chapter 40: A Safe Haven

"Could you watch him for a sec, dear? Lemme just check up on something."

_What...? Where...?_

Pinocchio was greeted by bright lights as he opened his eyes.

_I don't suppose I'm in the afterlife...?_

He tried to get up with a grunt, though the stabbing pain that cut through his right shoulder made it more difficult than it should have been – and, in the process, assured him of his continued survival. Looking at the bandages wrapped around it, he saw that _someone_ had taken care to tend to his wounds while he had been unconscious. _Guess I'm not dead, then._

_But then, where is this...?_

"Oh good, you're awake," said a voice from right at his bedside.

"Pinocchio, was it?" continued the voice – which, as it turned out, belonged to a man, clearly of mixed ethnicity, with dark hair and striking blue eyes. "It's nice to meet you."

"Uh, thanks, but how-?"

"How, what?" replied the Eurasian in turn, in the tone one might have used on a misbehaving child. "How'd you get here? A mutual friend brought you, of course. Told us all about what happened and asked us to take care of you."

"And really," he added, "do thank Itachi when you see him next, will you? Honestly, you're lucky to be alive right now!"

"Yeah, that's true," said a new, unmistakably feminine voice. "You were in terrible shape when he brought you in, you know that?"

Both men turned towards the newcomer, a rose-haired girl with deep, red eyes. _Oh shit-!_

"Reina!?" Pinocchio exclaimed, visibly tensing up as pain flared anew through his bandaged shoulder. "You-! _What d'you think you're playing at!?_ "

"'What am I playing at?'" repeated the woman in a tone that was both incredulous and indignant. "Just who in the hell do you think fixed you up in the first place, asshole?"

"Shh, love, you surprised him, that's all. I'm sure he didn't mean what he said," intervened the Eurasian, putting up his hands in a gesture of placation. "Going through trauma like getting stabbed in the shoulder kind of messes with a guy's head sometimes, wouldn't you say?"

"Seriously, though," this he directed to Pinocchio, "that's my fiancée you just yelled at, and she _did_ save your life. It wouldn't hurt to be more grateful, you know!"

An awkward silence fell between the three of them as Pinocchio looked round at the room they were in – _if I had to guess, it's some super secret safe house like ours –_ and sized each of his companions up carefully. Now that he thought of it, the woman _wasn't_ Reina after all, however uncanny the resemblance might have been. For one thing, Reina had clearly intended to kill him back in that alley; even if she'd known that he survived that first attempt, it would have made much more sense for her to kill him while he was knocked out instead of going through the trouble of patching him up first.

"...Oh," muttered the blond in a small voice, breaking the silence that lasted several seconds. "Sorry about that. It's just that..."

"Yeah, well," said the woman, in a much calmer but still reproachful tone. "Why don't you answer a few questions for me, then? For one thing, _where is Rei Mikage?_ "

At their question, Pinocchio couldn't help but take a breath.

"You'll have to excuse her," offered the Eurasian in explanation. "We've known Rei since he was a little kid, so she's grown quite attached to him."

"...She took him. Right after she did _this,_ " Pinocchio answered tonelessly, jerking his head toward his shoulder. "Said she'd kill our friends, too..."

"Wait a minute," the blond spoke again after a beat. "If you're so concerned about Rei, then that must mean you're his family, right?"

"We are, yeah," nodded the Eurasian. "And yeah, we're Assassins too, in case you were wondering."

"Why, then?" demanded Pinocchio. "I'm your enemy, right? I'm an Abstergo agent-"

"You _were_ an enemy, yeah," the other man cut in, his use of the past tense not lost on Pinocchio. "But to answer your question, there were two reasons we saved you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Well, don't you think it's kind of obvious that you and your friends got fired? And _violently,_ at that?" noted the woman conversationally as she nodded toward Pinocchio's injured shoulder. "Maybe you _were_ an Abstergo agent," she continued, placing emphasis on her use of the past tense as she did so, "but if your bosses tried to kill you, then clearly that's no longer the case. Like it or not, you've nowhere else to go right now-"

No sooner had she finished explaining than the ringing of a mobile phone interrupted their conversation. "Hello?" she spoke as she took the call. "Uncle? Yeah, he's here and he's awake, don't worry-"

"...Oh. Alright, then," she finished, offering the phone to her lover as she did so. "He'd like a word, love."

"Excuse us, but we'll have to take this," said the other man as he took the phone and made to exit the room, the woman following behind him. "We'll be back, though, don't worry-"

"Wait a minute," Pinocchio called back just as the pair were about to close the door behind them. "You said there were two reasons, right? What's the second one...?"

"Oh, that?" smiled the Eurasian, "we already told you. We saved you because Itachi asked us to. And it's not just you, either – my sisters should be attending to some of your friends right about now."

"Get some rest in the meantime, alright? For now it'd be best if you focused on your recovery."

And with that, the pair left the room, leaving Pinocchio by himself.

* * *

" _Freya. Elda._ "

As she heard a voice inside her head, saying her name, she felt _something_ awaken inside her. And at the same time, she felt her accelerator suddenly kick in. And thanks to the fragment she left with Chii – who herself was locked in battle with Abstergo agents at the moment, albeit in much smaller numbers compared to the foes massed before her here – Freya knew that something similar was taking place on her end.

" _If the two of you are hearing this, then clearly you've both found a place to belong, and people to love and protect._ "

As she casually sidestepped an attacking Nephilim drone then decapitated it with equal nonchalance, Freya's thoughts immediately turned to Rei. To his family – Sayuri and Oyuki, not to mention Demeter and Ceres – not to mention their friends. And as she stabbed one of the Abstergo agents through the heart and felt a newly awakened power course through her entire body, she thought of Chii and their mother as well.

" _And if that's the case, then the time has come for you to receive my final gift, my last and dearest wish for you both: your restraints, released, and your full potential, unlocked._ "

Freya heard noises akin to long, drawn-out explosions, and turned to see a quartet of agents from behind her fire off a burst from their assault rifles. In her accelerated state, however, the bullets may as well have been crawling towards her in midair, and indeed, she plucked out the bullets one by one as before. And after doing so, Freya whipped out one of her pistols and returned fire, dispatching each and every one of her attackers with a bullet in the head.

" _Above all else, my children, please know that I want you both to live happy and meaningful lives. And though I know that this wish of mine may be in vain if ever you hear these words, know also that I will always love you._ "

At those words, Freya's accelerator suddenly went into overdrive; while it slowed time down to a crawl before, right now it had become more powerful to the point that the enemies that had swarmed her had all but frozen in time. When she looked around at the masses that surrounded her, Freya knew that their numbers no longer mattered; even if there were at least a hundred of them, her newfound power boost would still allow her to cut through them in mere seconds.

"Time to end this...!"

Freya drew both her blades, right before charging the swarm of enemies before her and cutting through each and every one of them faster than the eye could see. All in all it took her no less than ten seconds to go through the entire force, before she leapt up on the roof of the Mikage house and sheathed her swords after removing the blood from them. And when she did so, all her enemies collapsed in lifeless, bloody heaps, while the Nephilim drones each lay vivisected where they once stood.

_...That was a close one..._

Finally, satisfied that the immediate threat had been dealt with, Freya decided to go to the basement to check up on her charges.

_Here's hoping the twins are on board..._

And later, when she'd satisfied herself that all of them were unharmed, Freya formulated a plan of her own.

_Rei, we're coming for you._

_I promise._

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the city...

"...It isn't much, Chitose, but we should be safe here."

Lorenzo led Chitose back to his apartment building, though he opted not to go back to his unit; unlikely though it was, there was still a remote chance that Abstergo might have had an ambush team waiting up there, and he was unwilling to risk it. Instead they headed to the basement and parked his bike right beside the door to a broom closet, before leading her right into it. Once there, he then proceeded to tap on seemingly random spots on the wall. And when he'd finished, it turned out that the wall wasn't a wall at all, but a hidden door that concealed a flight of stairs going down.

And when they'd descended...

"You could say it's my secret base of sorts, yeah," quipped Lorenzo, smiling slightly at the look of astonishment on his friend's face.

As she looked around at their current location, Chitose had to admit that the term 'secret base' was a highly appropriate description for what lay before her. Like her own secret laboratory, the place was lined with computers and all kinds of advanced hardware; it being larger and much more spacious, however, Lorenzo's lab was much more thoroughly decorated and equipped. One look at the place would be enough to tell anyone just how much money had gone not only into construction, but also the actual facilities.

For instance, right in front of them was a collection of monitors, consoles and panels similar to what Chitose was familiar with. The southeast corner of the room seemed to have been set aside to allow for persocom maintenance and repairs, at least if the table and the various man-sized pods were anything to go by. On the easternmost wall was a rack, filled with all sorts of weaponry and gear, while there was a vacant space just in front of it which Chitose guessed had been set aside for physical training and the like. Meanwhile, to the southwest lay three highly advanced chairs which she guessed were the latest iterations of the 'Animus' device that her husband had told her about.

"Yeah, it's pretty decked out," Lorenzo said suddenly, laughing in spite of the severity of the situation. "Place's got its own shower and beds, too, just in case I need to have a bunch of people hide out here. I mean, you never know, right?"

"Oh, and if you're wondering how on earth I managed to have this place built," he added with a grin, "let's just say it's nice to be able to call in all sorts of favors from all sorts of people. Weasel and the others should be here shortly, so just relax for now."

Chitose said nothing, instead keeping silent as she chose to take everything in. An evil mega corporation after her two daughters, ancient conspiracies, secret laboratories in basement parking lots...

"Oh, yeah," Lorenzo snapped her out of her daze. "Shouldn't you call in that guy who you said your other daughter was with? Like I said, there's lots of room here, and I'd say this place may as well be a safe haven compared to the outside."

All in all, today was turning out to be one of the most intense days of their lives.

* * *

"... _There._ "

Freya's fragment breathed a sigh of relief as she executed Chii's program, causing all of their enemies to deactivate themselves and fall to the floor.

For some reason, the enemies sent after her here had all been Nephilim drones, as opposed to the mixed force of human agents and drones that had been sent to attack the Mikage house. Needless to say, it was a simple matter to make use of her sister's special function in order to take control of all the drones sent to attack her and then forcibly deactivate them. Which was a good thing, considering how their numbers had been too large for Freya to take on without her enhancements; however lethal her programmed skills might have made her, the fact remained that Chii's body was ill-equipped to extended combat.

" _Well, Motosuwa, it looks like we're clear,_ " she said as she turned toward the youth in question before preparing to relinquish control to Chii. " _I'll trust you to take my sister somewhere safe now-_ "

Freya cut herself off, however, as she received an incoming phone call. _Mother? Why...?_

And when it ended, she fixed him with a hard look on her face.

" _...Right, there's been a change of plans._ "

" _Sorry about this, but could you follow me for a while longer?_ "

And upon seeing Hideki nod, Freya in her borrowed body led them all to where her mother was waiting for them.


	42. Chapter 41: A Siren Call

"...Miss Kotoko?"

Yuzuki had gone down to receive their most recent visitor, only to be surprised when she saw who it was. For that matter, it was clear to Kotoko from the look on Minoru's face that he didn't see this coming, either. Then again, not even Kotoko herself could have known that things would turn out the way they did; right now, all she could do was to help avert the worst case scenario by telling them everything she knew.

"...Hi, Yuzuki," the other persocom reciprocated with a tired, wan smile. "Hi, Minoru. Something's happened-"

At which point Kotoko wasted no time explaining at length the recent developments concerning Kojima and his work at Abstergo Japan. She described how he'd been part of a project designed to create a combat persocom meant to be a match for Freya, as well as mass-produced derivatives designed to augment the Templars' already massive force. More to the point, she also elaborated on how she secretly tried to undermine Abstergo in these endeavors, but that odds were good that she had been discovered.

"They've got Koji-kun confined there right now, and I'm pretty sure they've been holding a gun to his head this whole time," Kotoko went on, a single tear leaking out of her eye in spite of herself. "And on top of that... Siren-!"

Kotoko's words were lost to her as she felt herself crying into one of the throw pillows on the couch in Minoru's study, Yuzuki patting her back in an attempt to comfort her. Though she, Yuzuki, had never realized it, it was clear from Kotoko's current distress that she regarded Kojima in a manner not unlike how Chii perceived Hideki, or how Freya saw Rei. "Siren... they're-"

"Siren?" Minoru asked, his curiosity piqued; he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was _something_ in the way Kotoko said the name that gave him pause. "Care to explain, Kotoko?"

The purple-haired persocom looked at him, light streaking across her eyes, but said nothing. Sure enough, Yuzuki walked up to him after a few seconds and connected one of her cables to the computer on his desk. And as Minoru caught sight of the content displayed on his monitor, his eyes all but bulged out of their sockets.

_This is...!_

"Siren, Koji-kun created her," Kotoko spat bitterly, fists clenched tightly on her lap. "She's pretty much a daughter to me, and I know he feels the same way. Abstergo, on the other hand..."

She trailed off again, this time clearly out of disgust and contempt towards the company in question. Of course, thought Minoru, everything they needed to know about Project Nephilim's brainchild was already on the monitor right in front of him. Siren – 'the Nephilim', as the file called her – had been created as an enforcer for Abstergo and the Templar Order as a whole. At the same time, the file also noted that she had been created to be able to take on Freya on equal footing. And while most of the enhancements possessed by the Nephilim were wholly distinct ones from Freya's...

"Even I don't have fully knowledge of what she's capable of," confessed Kotoko, who had wiped her tears using a box of tissues Yuzuki had given her, "but she may as well be a dangerous weapon in Abstergo's hands. If possible I don't want anything to happen to her either, but..."

Neither Minoru nor Yuzuki needed Kotoko to complete her sentence in order to understand where it was going. She obviously didn't want the Nephilim – Siren – destroyed if it could be avoided, but there was no question that she needed to be stopped – or, better yet, freed from Abstergo's control. But if she was meant to be a match for Freya, then doing so would definitely prove to be a challenge.

_And if they've got a gun to Kojima's head, then..._

For now, all Yuzuki could do was relay this information to Freya.

_Beyond that, though..._

_...All we can do is hope._

* * *

"...Another one of you drones?"

After she'd dealt with the attackers at the Mikage house, Freya stuck around a while longer until Ceres – who had clearly suffered _some_ damage, judging from how her arm was in a sling – bade her to go proceed to a particular set of coordinates, which just so happened to correspond to the location her mother had given her. With that, she left, though the fact that her accelerator was unusable for the moment compelled her to make do without it. As she rushed through a deserted street, however...

"Seriously, just how many more of you _are_ there!?"

Freya sighed in annoyance as what appeared to be yet another Nephilim drone got in her way, before quickly drawing her blade to parry the new enemy as she struck with one of her own swords.

"Not a drone," her adversary replied, her face mere inches from Freya's as steel met steel. "I am Siren, designated PNE-000 of Project Nephilim."

"You might say I was created to take your place," this she added as she leapt back a fair distance, before slashing the air in a clear gesture of challenge. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Freya."

The revelations hit Freya like a freight train as she stared down her latest enemy and drew her swords. Now that she thought about it, this one wasn't _quite_ identical to the Nephilim drones she'd faced earlier, however much she might have looked like them. For one thing, this one – Siren, she called herself – had actually had a light in her eyes that suggested she was more than just a mindless doll like those drones were. And if that was indeed the case, thought Freya, then...

"Yeah, well," began Freya as she checked her systems; while _her father's gift_ wasn't ready to be used again so soon, she at least had enough energy for her accelerator. "Here goes-!"

With that, Freya disappeared from view, having accelerated just before going on her offensive. Through the data relayed by Yuzuki, she saw that Siren didn't possess an accelerator of her own, which meant that this gave her the advantage if that was indeed the case. But then-

"What the hell-!"

Unfortunately for Freya, her accelerator suddenly deactivated itself, though barely five seconds had passed. And though her attack was still fairly swift even without the benefit of accelerated movement, the sudden loss of her ace in the hole left her enemy just enough time to parry with one of her blades. And though she managed to avoid any real damage to herself, the riposte that quickly followed left a small gash on her right leg.

"I had a feeling you'd try something like that," Siren called, brandishing both blades as she assumed a fighting stance. "Sorry, Miss Freya, but I was built with countermeasures for that particular maneuver. You won't be able to accelerate while fighting against me, I'm afraid."

_There goes my ace in the hole, then..._

Even as she hissed in frustration, Freya had to admit that this latest development wasn't altogether surprising. If Siren was indeed intended to fight her on even footing, it made sense that she would possess enhancements meant to counteract or neutralize her own. At any rate, what was clear to Freya was that her best bet in ending this quickly had just been taken out of play. _Let's try this, then..._

The cables shot upward out of Freya's ear compartments, grappling onto the roof of a two-storey apartment building and pulling her up there as she evaded Siren's gunfire. She then had them latch onto the lamppost just behind Siren, allowing her to dive bomb her opposite number with a slashing strike -

_Blocked again!?_

Freya's eyes widened as Siren managed to block her attack once more, if only barely; though Freya saw that one of her blades managed to sink a quarter of an inch into her adversary's neck, Siren had nevertheless blocked just in time to stop the worst of her attack. _She's good...!_

"Good try, Miss Freya," Siren acknowledged her counterpart with a nod as the latter landed a short distance from her. "You're every bit the adversary I was told you would be."

"But then," she continued as she leapt up on to the vantage point Freya had been moments ago, "how will you deal with _this_...?"

Freya stood rooted to the spot, the thrill of foreboding flooding her entire being as she anticipated what her enemy would try next.

* * *

"I hear... a voice..."

Yuzuki whispered the words faintly as she heard a haunting song, sung as though from far away. And as she looked at Kotoko, she could tell that her fellow persocom could hear it too.

"...Yuzuki?" prompted Minoru uncertainly as he looked from her to their guest. "What's going on?"

"I hear a voice," Yuzuki repeated, before trailing off as that _someone_ continued to beckon to her. "Someone's calling out to me... Someone who knows me very well..."

At those words, Minoru couldn't help but recall the time when Chii activated her own function. Yuzuki had said the exact same thing back then, before becoming completely unresponsive as _that_ program did its work in her. From what he could see, whatever was happening now seemed to be similar; and though neither of the persocoms before him appeared to go into that trance-like state from before, _something_ told him that whatever was happening wasn't anything good-

"...Minoru?" Kotoko piped up suddenly, even as the light streaking across her eyes told him that 'the voice' continued to speak to her as well. "It's a bit of a stretch, but how strong is the security software in Yuzuki and your other persocoms?"

It was Yuzuki who answered this.

"My security software is military-grade, Miss Kotoko," she said, paying no attention to what she was hearing in her head. "It was a gift from Miss Freya, and I distributed it to our other persocoms here as well. Is something the matter?" she added, concern evident in her voice as Kotoko breathed a sigh of relief at her answer.

"It's one of the functions they had Koji-kun build into her," their guest explained, a deathly pallor on her face. "Siren can spread a virus in a surrounding area to take control of all persocoms there, unless their security software can stand up to it. And if she's using it now, then..."

Neither Yuzuki nor Minoru noticed the rest of the words coming out of Kotoko's mouth. At this point, it was fairly easy to see how Siren got her name; in effect, that voice Yuzuki and Kotoko had been hearing was a siren call, meant to take them over and turn them into Siren's minions. And if she was making use of _that_ particular function of hers right now, then...

"Yuzuki, Kotoko, d'you think you could trace her location?" Minoru asked them both urgently. "I've got a plan."

Even as he went over the details in his head, though, Minoru prayed hard that that gambit of his would pay off. Too much was riding on him right now, and the consequences of failure in this situation were too great to even consider.

* * *

Time and again, Freya and Siren clashed and crossed swords as their duel continued to rage on in that dimly lit street. After a while, Freya switched out her blades in favor of her twin pistols, only to fare little better as all her shots were evaded one way or another. Before long, it became clear to both persocoms that without their respective enhancements, they were evenly matched in terms of pure combat ability.

But then...

"Huh?"

In the distance, she could see multitudes of persocoms closing in on her location; clearly, Siren had called for backup. But even though the sight before her didn't lie, Freya still had a hard time believing what she was seeing. She didn't see how it could be possible, but right now it was as if the Nephilim drones were endless in number.

"You called on your drones to back you up?" she asked, astonished at the sheer number before her. "I thought I wiped out most of them?"

"You did," conceded Siren evenly, with no trace of emotion whatsoever. "I called for backup, alright, but those _aren't_ Nephilim drones. Why don't you take a second look?"

As Freya did just that, she realized to her horror what Siren had done. The good news was that she wasn't lying; those _weren't_ Nephilim drones at all. Now that she took a closer look at the new arrivals, she saw that one of them was in a French maid outfit, presumably a maid persocom at some cafe or under the ownership of a particularly rich family. Another one, she saw, was in a nurse's outfit, while yet another bore the uniform of a popular chain of convenience stores. _But that means-!_

"You...!" Freya managed to gasp, pointing a shaking sword at her counterpart before her. "What have you done!?"

"It's simple, Miss Freya," Siren explained matter-of-factly. "You cut through my Nephilim drones without a second thought, and I can see why. Abstergo built them to be mindless dolls after all, so I hold no ill will against you either."

" _These_ ones, on the other hand," she continued, gesturing at the gathered horde standing behind her, "are all normal persocoms. With families, friends and lives of their own. The question is, can you cut them down the way you cut down my drones?"

Freya gritted her teeth as she assessed her current predicament. A brief glance behind her told her that she'd been surrounded in the meantime. She couldn't recognize any of the possessed persocoms, but that did nothing to reassure her at the moment. And though Freya was loath to admit it, Siren had a point; she _couldn't_ just cut her way through them.

_Which means the only way out of here is..._

Right now, thought Freya, the only option was to cut Siren down and free her thralls.

Freya once again leapt up on the roof, reversing her grip on one of her blades as she did so, before descending back to the ground in an attempt to dispatch her counterpart with a spinning slash.

_I hope this works...!_


End file.
